Uganda is on high alert as an outbreak of the dreaded Ebola hemorrhagic fever has occurred in the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo), local media reported, according to Xinhua. According to the Director General of Health Services Dr Sam Zaramba, the Health Ministry has communicated to immigration staff at Uganda's western border points to monitor people coming from DR Congo. "We have asked immigration officials to immediately contact our medical staff in the vicinity in case of any suspicion," Zaramba was quoted by Daily Monitor on Thursday as saying. With some people reluctant to disclose their exact areas of origin for fear of being inconvenienced and perhaps quarantined, it remains a challenge how the immigration staff will handle the situation. However, Uganda is yet to issue any alerts or tight border controls. "The WHO has not prompted us and there are minimal chances that the epidemic will reach here because the outbreak is far away from the borders and international efforts are underway to contain it there," added Zaramba. DR Congo's Ministry of Health declared on Dec. 25 that there was an outbreak of the Ebola hemorrhagic fever in Mweka District, Kasai Occidental province. The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday that of 35 suspected cases, including 11 deaths, in western Kasai province, only two were confirmed as Ebola, and both these patients were still alive. A major Ebola outbreak in DR Congo, then known as Zaire, in 1995 killed 250 out of the 315 people known to have been infected, including health workers who contacted with infected blood. Late 2007, Uganda suffered an Ebola outbreak in the western district of Bundibugyo, which claimed 37 lives out of the 148 infected. And since this outbreak that was officially declared over on Feb. 20, 2008, Ugandan Health Ministry has been on the alert for any eventualities. Ebola virus is highly contagious and causes a range of symptoms including fever, vomiting, diarrhea, generalized pain or malaise and in many cases internal and external bleeding.
