Hoima authorities have gazzeted a place where students coming for holidays from Ebola hit Mubende district will be tested from as a measure of combating the ongoing epidemic in the country.
Speaking on Monday, the district Health Officer, Dr. Lawrence Tumusiime, said students are expected to start arriving in the district on Tuesday (November 15) and will be received by the ministry of Health team at Boma play grounds in Hoima City where a tent for screening has been gazetted.
Badru Mugabi, the Hoima Resident City Commissioner said the ministry for Education and Sports in collaboration with UNICEF, an agency responsible for providing humanitarian and development aid to children are to provide safe transport means for these learners.
The first students who are said to be two are expected to use different routes; one from Mubende -Kakumiro via Kikuube while the other will use the Mubende- Kiboga- Kyankwanzi route.
‘’Upon arrival, blood samples will be taken from the students and thereafter sent to the Uganda Virus Research Institute (UVRI) in Entebbe for Ebola Virus screening and if found positive, they will be quarantined at Hoima hospital isolation centre’’, Tumusiime said.
“If they are found positive, immediately they will be subjected to treatment as the hospital has a special treatment centre for Ebola.”
Mugabi revealed that they have notified the parents of these students and that the students who will be found without Ebola symptoms will be left to go home and self-isolate while the ones who will be found with Ebola like signs will have to wait approximately for a week until their results return from UVRI.
He called for calm among the populace, noting that the government has put sound measures needed in fighting Ebola and its effects including counselors to provide psychological support to the patients and their families.
The Hoima RCC urged people to be vigilant and report any person suspected to have Ebola to the ministry of health so that they can be evacuated for testing and treatment as a way of fighting the epidemic.
He warns the public against stigmatisation of students, saying much as Mubende and Kasanda districts have been hit by Ebola, not everybody coming from there is positive. He explained that these learners have been safely cordoned off in their schools to protect them from the disease.
From when the outbreak was declared in Uganda on September 20 until November 14, a total of 137 confirmed cases and 54 confirmed deaths from Ebola disease caused by the Sudan ebolavirus, have been reported, according to World Health Organisation.
