Tabu Butagira & Grace Matsiko
17 December 2007
Kampala — PRESIDENT Yoweri Museveni allegedly declined to shake hands with visiting delegates from the Democratic Republic of Congo on Friday over fears of contracting the deadly Ebola disease.
"I am happy to receive you in Kampala but unfortunately, I will not shake your hands because of this Ebola disease," Mr Museveni reportedly told the Uganda-DRC Joint Permanent Commission members led by Congo's foreign affairs minister Antipas Mbusa Nyamwisi.
Ebola Haemorrhagic Fever or EHF as is known in medical jargon is a viral infection spread through contact with body fluids of an infected person, including sweat and saliva. At the Friday meeting at State House, Mr Museveni just waved to the foreign dignitaries - a significant departure from his usual humorous and palm-gripping greetings to welcome state guests.
About a fortnight ago, Mr Museveni advised Ugandans to avoid handshakes to minimise further dispersion of Ebola to the countryside. This is the second time that the ever-cautious Museveni has publicly skipped handshakes over communicable diseases. While returning from a requiem mass for fallen SPLM/A commander John Garang in south Sudan in August 2005, the President shunned handshakes with Arua town dwellers over fears of cholera, which was ravaging the West Nile municipality at the time.
The highly lethal Ebola erupted in Bundibugyo in August but it was not until November 27, that epidemiological experts at the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention in the US confirmed that what had been christened as a "mysterious illness" was in fact a new sub type of the virulent disease.
Dr. Zabuloni 'Yoti of the World Health Organisation in Uganda, who is in charge of Ebola case management at the epicenter in Bundibugyo, yesterday said two new patients had been admitted at Kikyo health centre IV, bringing the confirmed cumulative infections to 122. The death toll, he said, had remained at 35 since no patient passed away over the weekend "There are currently four people (with Ebola) admitted in Bundibugyo District and eight others at Kikyo health centre," Dr. 'Yoti said.
He attributed the decline in fresh infections and steady recovery of Ebola victims to early detection and effective treatment of other secondary bacterial infections arising from Ebola attacks. Ministry of health officials and other partner NGOs are optimistic that the dreaded new strain of the Ebola epidemic in western Uganda that caused nationwide panic, maybe on the brink of containment following the weekend lull in fresh infections.
"If we can sustain this trend," said Dr. Sam Zaramba, the Director General of health services, "that would mean the infection is coming under contr ol". Dr. 'Yoti of WHO said he believes the surveillance team has effectively managed to trace and isolate all persons who made contacts with both dead and living Ebola victims and that the myriad of on-going public sensitisation on preventive methods is working in the rural communities.
"Since November 3, we have embarked on a number of (Ebola) containment measures including provision of safety gears to heath workers, stepping up disinfections at the medical facilities, ensuring safe burials and banning relatives from washing dead bodies of Ebola victims as well as limiting visitors to patients at Ebola treatment Isolation centers," he said.
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