Kampala has registered two Ebola cases, including a male who died in Kiruddu Hospital last week. And the other is the man’s wife who also tested positive in Kitebi Health Centre IV in Kampala. The wife is in isolation at Uganda Virus Institution Entebbe with her baby.
Following the detection of the two Ebola cases in Kampala, President Museveni has put Kampala City on high alert following. The two cases are suspected to have escaped from Mubende.
In his statements, last Saturday, the President when the president put a lockdown on Mubende and Kassanda to prevent the spread of the disease and said the Ebola response team should cover the entire Kampala Metropolitan area.
“While the two cases that tested positive came from Mubende District and are regarded as Mubende cases, because of the presence of contacts of these two cases and the risks of infection, I have directed a full mobilization of Kampala City into a response mode,” he said in the statement.
Already five districts have been confirmed with cases of Ebola Virus Disease, infecting 58 and killing 19, according to the statistics from the Health Ministry. Up to 20 people have also recovered from the disease.
According to the Health Ministry, at least 42 contacts of the cases in Kampala have been listed and 10 quarantined.
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The epidemic is coming at a time when the country is struggling to recover from the effects of Covid-19 on the economy, where the tourism sector was one of the most affected.
Many tourists were reported to have canceled their flights for fear of contracting the disease.
President Museveni said they decided to impose the lockdown in the two districts because the people in the Ebola epicenter were not playing their role in preventing the spread of the disease.
“This is a very violent disease once it gets into your body but it is very easy to avoid. But there are some people who cannot be advised. There are some people [Ebola patients] who were difficult, lying to us, hijacking dead bodies, and moving from district to district, including coming to Kampala. This movement and deceit has not changed and this increases the risk of spreading the disease to other parts of the country,” the President said.
He added: “Given the gravity of the problem and to prevent further spread and, protect lives and livelihoods, the government is taking extra measures that require action from all of us. All these measures shall start with immediate effect and will last 21 days because the incubation period for Ebola is up to 21 days.”
