Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni on Saturday imposed a lockdown on two districts at the epicenter of an Ebola outbreak, barring personal travel, ordering a night curfew and shuttering public places.
There have been 19 deaths and 58 confirmed cases of the often-fatal viral haemorrhagic fever since the outbreak was first reported on Sept. 20, the Ugandan Ministry of Health said.
The outbreak is concentrated in the central districts of Mubende and Kassanda and has not reached Kampala, the capital of 1.5 million, despite a husband and wife testing positive there, authorities said.
Photo: Reuters
In a televised address, Museveni on Saturday ordered Mubende and Kassanda into immediate lockdown, imposing a dusk to dawn curfew, banning travel and closing markets, bars and churches for 21 days.
“I now direct as follows: Movements now into and out of Mubende and Kassanda districts are now prohibited,” Museveni said. “If you are in Mubende and Kassanda districts, stay there for 21 days.”
Cargo trucks would still be allowed to enter and leave the two areas, but all other transport — personal or otherwise — was suspended, he said.
Museveni had already ordered traditional healers to stop treating sick people in a bid to halt the spread of Ebola, and ordered police to arrest anyone suspected of having contracted the virus who refuses to go into isolation.
The new measures come amid concern that some patients in the Ebola hot spots could surreptitiously try to seek treatment elsewhere — as did one man who fled Mubende and died at a hospital in Kampala earlier this month, rattling health officials.
Ebola is spread through bodily fluids, with common symptoms being fever, vomiting, bleeding and diarrhoea. Outbreaks are difficult to contain, especially in urban environments.
Uganda’s last recorded fatality from a previous Ebola outbreak was in 2019.
The particular strain now circulating in Uganda is known as the Sudan Ebola virus, for which there is no vaccine.
The WHO says clinical trials could start within weeks on drugs to combat that strain.
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