Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni inspects the honor guard, during the 60th Independence Celebration, in Kololo, Uganda, Sunday, October 9, 2022.
Hajarah Nalwadda / AP
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Hajarah Nalwadda / AP
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni inspects the honor guard, during the 60th Independence Celebration, in Kololo, Uganda, Sunday, October 9, 2022.
Hajarah Nalwadda / AP
KAMPALA, Uganda – Ugandan authorities on Saturday imposed a travel ban on two Ebola-hit counties as part of an effort to contain the spread of the infectious disease.
The measures announced by President Yoweri Museveni mean that residents of Uganda’s central Mubende and Kassanda districts cannot get in and out of those areas by private or public transport. Cargo vehicles and other vehicles transiting from the capital Kampala to southwestern Uganda are still allowed to operate, he said.
He said: All entertainment venues, including bars, as well as places of worship have been ordered to close, and all burials in those counties must be supervised by officials. medical authority. A nighttime curfew has also been put in place. The restrictions will last for at least 21 days.
“These are temporary measures to control the spread of Ebola,” Museveni said.
Ebola has infected 58 people in the East African country since September 20, when authorities announced the outbreak. At least 19 people have died, including four medical staff. Ugandan authorities were not quick to spot the outbreak, which began infecting people in a farming community in August as a “strange disease” described by local authorities.
The new measures come amid concerns that some patients in Ebola hotspots may be surreptitiously seeking treatment elsewhere – as did a man who fled Mubende and died at a hospital hospital in Kampala earlier this month, causing concern among health officials.
According to the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Ugandan authorities have recorded more than 1,100 people in contact with known Ebola patients. Sudan’s strain of Ebola, with no proven vaccine, is circulating in the country of 45 million people.
Ebola, which presents as a viral hemorrhagic fever, can be difficult to detect at first because fever is also a symptom of malaria.
Ebola is spread by contact with an infected person’s bodily fluids or contaminated material. Symptoms include fever, vomiting, diarrhea, muscle aches, and sometimes internal and external bleeding.
Ebola first appeared in 1976 during two simultaneous outbreaks in South Sudan and the Congo, where it occurred in a village near the Ebola River, after which the disease was named.
