Tanzania raises alarm as child dies of ebola in uganda

Dar es Salaam. The government yesterday warned of an Ebola threat in the country resulting from cross-border transmission. This comes about following the case of a nine-year-old girl who tested positive for the viral disease in neighbouring Uganda.

A statement issued by the ministry of Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children said the regions of Kagera, Kigoma and Mwanza were at higher risk due to the porous common border with Uganda.

The ministry also pointed out that the regions of Katavi, Mbeya, Rukwa, Songwe, Dodoma and Dar es Salaam are also at high risk due to business interactions by locals and foreigners who fly into the country.

“Measures are in place to combat any likely case of Ebola if it enters Tanzania,’’ said the ministry in a statement following the Ebola case in Uganda.

Cross-border transmission of Ebola is an international challenge, according to WHO.

In the Uganda Ebola case, the child - who later died - was travelling from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), a Ugandan health official told AFP on Friday. “She passed away at around 0800 (0500GMT) this morning,” said Yusuf Baseka, health director in Kasese, a district in southwestern Uganda along the border with DRC.

The child was diagnosed after exhibiting symptoms at a border crossing in Kasese District on Wednesday.

She was subsequently isolated and transferred to an Ebola treatment unit.

Her body would be repatriated to DR Congo later Friday, Dr Baseka said.

The girl is the fourth victim diagnosed with Ebola in Uganda to have died from the hemorrhagic fever.

In June, three members of a single family tested positive for Ebola in Uganda after entering from the DR Congo.

Two died in Uganda, while the third succumbed to the disease after returning to DR Congo. Uganda has been on high alert since the start of the Ebola outbreak in neighbouring DR Congo in August 2018.

Health officials in DR Congo said Friday that the death toll from the epidemic had exceeded 2,000 people.