Uganda’s Ministry of Health says the country has no confirmed active Ebola cases and is asking Nigeria for the travel itinerary and clinical history of the woman whose infection was confirmed in Abuja this week.
In a statement issued in Kampala on Tuesday, October 20, the ministry said the patient travelled to the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo for business before transiting through Uganda in early October.
Preliminary information indicated that she showed no symptoms while in Uganda but developed them after arriving in Nigeria, where her infection was subsequently confirmed, the ministry said.
“Travel through Uganda does not establish that infection occurred here,” the statement said. “We wish to clarify that, as at the time of this statement, Uganda has no confirmed active Ebola cases.”
It said the Nigerian government was yet to provide detailed information about the woman’s travel itinerary and clinical history, which it said would guide further investigations and any necessary contact tracing.
Nigeria’s health ministry, in its own account, described the patient as a woman who recently arrived on an international flight from Uganda. Health Minister Muhammad Ali Pate said her symptoms developed after she had arrived, and that 44 contacts have been identified for monitoring.
Uganda’s clarification came hours after Africa’s public-health agency appealed for urgent international backing as the Bundibugyo outbreak, which was declared in May, spreads across the continent. “Stopping Ebola in Africa today means protecting the world,” Africa CDC director-general Jean Kaseya said on Tuesday.
Kaseya said the outbreak had become the most geographically widespread Ebola outbreak in history, affecting multiple countries across three regions of Africa. He called for flexible financing, medical supplies, diagnostics, trained responders and stronger community-based surveillance, and praised Nigeria’s prompt reporting of the confirmed case.
Uganda said it would strengthen screening and public-health controls at points of entry. In an earlier report here, NaijaTrend covered the confirmation in Abuja and the government’s response.
Where she contracted the virus remains the central open question: Nigerian authorities describe her as arriving on a flight from Uganda, while Uganda says she actually travelled from the DRC and only passed through Uganda.
Sources: PUNCH, Daily Trust, The ICIR
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