Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni on Wednesday ruled out possibilities of imposing a lockdown to contain spread of the highly contagious Ebola virus, reported The BBC.
Last week, the Ugandan health authorities declared an outbreak in the central district of Mubende with the first casualty being a 24-year old man.
President Museveni said there is no need to impose restrictions because the viral disease is not airborne. He also assured that the country had the capacity to contain the outbreak due to previous experience with similar outbreaks. This is the fourth time Ebola has broken out in Uganda.
“We decided that we shall not have lockdowns. It is not necessary,” the Ugandan president said. “Government has capacity to control this outbreak as we have done before. There is no need for anxiety, no restrictions of movements, closure of schools places of worships, markets as of now.”
Notably, it takes about 24 hours’ time for samples to be tested and laboratory results to be released. The president said a laboratory would be set up at Mubende district headquarters, the epicentre of the outbreak, to reduce the sample processing time.
24 people have been confirmed to be infected by the Ebola virus in the country so far, five of whom have died, since the outbreak was declared last week. At least six Ugandan medical workers have also been confirmed to be infected with the Ebola virus.
It is difficult to identify the symptoms of the Ebola Sudan strain as they are similar to other diseases like malaria and typhoid, which are endemic in the affected areas.
There is currently no vaccine for the Sudan strain of the Ebola virus. The only available vaccine is effective against the Zaire strain that has led to outbreaks in West Africa and neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo, which declared an end to a recent Ebola virus outbreak on Tuesday.
