Ebola prevention practices relaxed in public places

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | A number of public places have relaxed Ebola prevention measures. In some of the public places like hotels and offices in previously hit Ebola sites our reporter found no disinfectants and hand washing facilities.

For instance, at the Uganda –Congo cross border meeting organized to discuss how to improve preparedness for Ebola surveillance at Ugandan points of entry yesterday, nothing was mentioned about disinfecting or providing hand washing at Imperial Royale hotel even as delegates, doctors and government officials were from both the Uganda- Congo border and the Ebola ridden areas of North Kivu in Congo.

Even at the Ministry of Health headquarters in Kampala which constantly receives teams of people who have visited the Ebola hotspots, what remains at the entrance is a poster explaining how Ebola is spread, the same remains at various police stations visited.

The Ebola outbreak incident commander at the Ministry of Health Dr Allan Muruta says that emphasis is put in high-risk districts.

Dr Kaggwa Mugagga who is responsible for coordinating entry points in the Ebola Response at the World Health Organization said taking precautionary measures is an individual initiative which can’t be forcefully enforced.

So far, Uganda has had four cases of Ebola since August 2018 when an outbreak was declared in Congo. All the four cases have been imported into the country and every time a new case is announced, precautionary measures of hand washing and temperature taking are heightened in several public places but always shortly after people go back into accessing public spaces without disinfecting themselves.

The Health Minister Jane Ruth Aceng says Uganda can only afford to relax if Congo is declared Ebola-free but as of end of last week, the cases in the country had risen to 3,157, according to figures by Medecins San Frontiers, an international medical humanitarian organization.

*****

URN