UMMY MWALIMU: EBOLA ALERT TO STAY EVEN AS OUTBREAK CONTAINED
The minister for Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children, Ms Ummy Mwalimu, made the emphasis during an interview with The Citizen.
Tanzania will continue strengthening surveillance in its international borders even as the World Health Organisation (WHO) has declared that the Democratic Republic of Congo was free of the Ebola threat.
The minister for Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children, Ms Ummy Mwalimu, made the emphasis during an interview with The Citizen.
On Monday, WHO announced that Ebola outbreak in the DRC had been contained. “We’re glad that the outbreak is over but this should not make us relax on our preparedness plans. We’re also taking lessons learnt from this outbreak to improve our preparedness and response plan,” she told The Citizen.
She added “Tanzania and DRC share a border. We’ll continue to strengthen our surveillance systems including continue thermal screening in the port of entry since we are entering into preparedness phrase.”
Announcing that the outbreak of Ebola in DRC was over, Dr Oly Kalenga, the neighbouring country’s minister for Health said, “I urge that we now focus all our efforts on strengthening the health system in Bas-Uélé province, which has been stressed by the outbreak. Without strengthening the health system, effective surveillance is not possible.”
This comes 42 days after the last confirmed Ebola patient in the affected Bas-Uélé province tested negative for the disease for the second time.
On May 11, WHO was notified by the ministry of Public Health of the virus among a cluster of undiagnosed illnesses and deaths with haemorrhagic signs in Likati Health Zone.
Likati is a remote, hard to reach area, which shares borders with the Central African Republic and two other provinces of DRC.
Related to the outbreak, four people died, and four people survived the disease. Five of these cases were laboratory confirmed.
The effective response to this latest EVD outbreak in Africa was achieved through the timely alert by local authorities of suspect cases, immediate testing of blood samples, the early announcement of the outbreak by the government of DRC.
In Tanzania, the government, through the Ministry of Health put in place various strict measures to ensure Tanzanians remained protected against the disease.
Among other efforts, the government last month deployed medical experts to the country’s entry points including ports, airports and border points to strengthen screening of Ebola and to ensure no affected persons were allowed into the country.
However, according to the statement, WHO reiterated that it will closely continue to work with the DRC government to ensure that survivors had access to medical care and screening for persistent virus, as well as other forms of care.
, counselling and education to help them reintegrate into family and community life, reduce stigma and minimize the risk of EVD transmission.
Ends
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