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Rwanda: Ebola Screening Intensifies
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The New Times (Kigali)
10 December 2007
Posted to the web 10 December 2007
Ambrose Gahene
Gatuna
All travellers entering Rwanda from Uganda have been advised to avoid direct contact with blood and other body fluids to minimise threats of contracting the deadly Ebola virus.
A standby ambulance is stationed at Gatuna border post, the main entry point from Uganda to Rwanda, to attend to emergency cases.
A special tent with medical equipment has already been erected at Byumba Hospital, for any eventualities.
Medical gloves have also been distributed to all staff working at Gatuna border to protect them from getting direct contact with individuals.
"There are no reported Ebola cases so far in Rwanda," Bonaventure Butare, the nursing chief at the border, said.
"We are mainly advising people to take preventive measures against the spread of Ebola," he explained.
Butare said all incoming passengers are asked whether they have had any direct contact with Ebola patients or attended burial ceremonies of Ebola victims.
Recent Ebola outbreak in western Uganda districts of Bundibugyo, Kasese, Kabarole and Mbarara have prompted the Ministry of Health to introduce precautionary measures at all border posts with Uganda and DRC to prevent the disease from spilling over into Rwanda.
A team of medical personnel and nurses from Byumba Hospital and CHK were dispatched last week to screen incoming passengers hailing from Ebola affected districts in Uganda and neighbouring regions of DRC.
Other health institutions such as the Treatment and Research Aids Centre (Trac) and the National Bureau of Standards have also contributed medical equipment and personnel to guard against Ebola.
The deadly hemorrhagic fever has claimed about 24 people since its outbreak in Uganda is characterised by sudden fever, intense body weakness, muscle pain, headache and sore throat among other symptoms.
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This is often followed by vomiting, diarrhoea and internal or external bleeding.
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