Museveni cautions on Ebola outbreak

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has used the budget reading day to speak candidly about the recent Ebola outbreak reports in the country.

Speaking at the 2019/2020 financial year budget reading at the Kampala Serena Hotel yesterday, President Museveni appealed to citizens to avoid shaking hands to avoid contracting the virus that is spread through contact with the body fluids of a person with the disease.

These were his opening remarks following the presentation of the budget by Finance Minister Matia Kasaija.

His remarks followed a high level Ebola alertness at the budget reading venue where people attending the event were made to wash hands with detergent following the Ebola outbreak in the Western part of the country.

Health Ministry officials camped at the venue ahead of the budget reading and asked every person accessing the premises to wash their hands.

On Tuesday this week, the Health Ministry pronounced the first Ebola case in the country which was of a 5-year old boy who is said to have entered Uganda from the Bwera border crossing located in Kasese District from the Democratic Republic of Congo on June 9, 2019, in the company of his mother. The two had traveled to the DRC last week to attend the burial of a relative.

On their journey back, they came with four other relatives, two of who had symptoms of Ebola, a severe illness that is spread through contact with the body fluids of a person sick with the disease.

According to the World Health Organization, the family sought treatment at Kagando Hospital where Health workers identified Ebola as a possible cause of illness. The Child was later transferred to Bwera Ebola Treatment Unit for Management while awaiting results of medical tests from the Uganda Virus Research Institute. The child passed on after one day and the grandmother died yesterday evening.

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