Home aticle & opinion Two Ebola Screening Centres Razed At Uganda Congo Border – New Vision

Two Ebola Screening Centres Razed At Uganda Congo Border – New Vision

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Two Ebola Screening Centres Razed At Uganda Congo Border – New Vision

The centres were established after the Ministry of Health confirmed three Ebola cases in Kasese district on June 11, 2019.

HEALTH   EBOLA

KASESES – Unknown people have burnt two Ebola-screening centres at the Uganda-Congo border in Kasese district.

The burnt centres are located at Kisolholo village in Karambi sub-county, along the common border.

The centres were established after the Ministry of Health confirmed three Ebola cases in Kasese district on June 11, 2019.

The included a five-year-old boy who had travelled to Masambu in the DRC with his 50-year-old grandmother for the burial of a relative.

According to the health minister, Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng, no other cases have been registered in Kasese.

Uganda shares a nearly 900-kilometer long, often porous border with the DRC, where the disease has so far infected about 2,400 Congolese nationals, killing more than 1400 of them since August 2018.

Sources in the area told New Vision that the Wednesday incident occurred at Maliba-Abiri and Masango, which are major entry points from the war-ravaged DRC, attributing it to angry Congolese nationals.

Speaking on conditions of anonymity, a member of ten village health team working at Maliba-Abiri, said that earlier, a 19-year-old-boy from DRC was found with high temperature and immediately rushed to Bwera Hospital.

“We suspect that the group could have masterminded the destruction of the centre,” said the source.

Another source close to a humanitarian agency said the relatives of the suspected Ebola case from the DRC hurled insults at the teams in protest of the referral.

“His relatives reacted angrily, alleging that their national was going to be injected with Ebola,” said the source, who also spoke on conditions of anonymity since he is not allowed to speak for the organisation.

Security deployed, matter under probe

Confirming the incident, the Kasese deputy Resident District Commissioner, Joshua Kisembo Masereka, said the incident was being investigated.

He said a group of Congolese, armed with knives and spears had even warned that no Ugandan should cross to their side before the boy is handed back to them.

“The conduct of our Congolese kinsmen therefore makes our people suspect them of being behind the burning of the facility,” Masereka said.

Masereka said police and UPDF had been deployed around the centre but that the situation was under control.

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