Ebola: Uganda Announces 21-Day Quarantine For Returnees From DR Congo

Ugandans returning home from DR Congo — which has been hit by its worst-ever Ebola outbreak — will be required to spend 21 days in quarantine, the health ministry said on Sunday.

The DRC, which shares a border with Uganda, has recorded more than 4,600 deaths since it declared its 17th Ebola outbreak in May. The virus has killed more than 15,000 people in Africa over the last 50 years.

In August, the World Health Organisation (WHO) officially declared Uganda Ebola-free after 20 cases, including two deaths, on its territory, almost exclusively among people coming from visits to DRC.

Ebola is transmitted through contact with bodily fluids and causes severe haemorrhagic fever.

The current outbreak is caused by the virus’ Bundibugyo strain, for which there is still no vaccine or specific treatment.

“Returning Ugandans with a history of travel to the DRC will undergo 21 days of quarantine at their own cost,” the Ugandan ministry stated, adding it had “intensified traveller screening at Entebbe International Airport and all land border crossings, supported by screening at designated road checkpoints.”

Kenya, where two people have died, and Nigeria, the continent’s most populous country, reported their first cases in October.

Nigeria recorded its first case on Tuesday — a woman who arrived in the capital Abuja on a flight from Uganda.

A Ugandan government spokesperson rejected, meanwhile, the idea that a patient identified in Nigeria might have contracted the virus in Uganda.

Alan Kasujja said it was “absurd” to suggest that because someone was on holiday in Uganda — “which, incidentally, has no cases of Ebola” — could spark a discussion about Ebola in Nigeria.

On Friday, Nigeria’s Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Muhammad Pate, said genomic sequencing revealed a close similarity between the Ebola virus detected in Nigeria and the strain identified in Kenya’s first imported case, with the analysis indicating that the two viral samples differ by only a single mutation.

The finding, according to Pate, provided fresh scientific insight into the case as health authorities intensify efforts to prevent further transmission.

The minister explained that the genomic analysis was conducted through a collaboration between the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) and the African Centre of Excellence for Genomics of Infectious Diseases at Redeemer’s University.

However, the health minister maintained that Nigeria has only one confirmed Ebola case.

He said contact tracing and laboratory testing are continuing as health authorities continue to monitor the contacts who may have been exposed to the virus.

Meanwhile, the Federal Government said the Ebola patient in Nigeria was showing signs of recovery days after it confirmed the case in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).