KINSHASA – An individual with Ebola travelled to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and then to Uganda, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on June 3.
The Congolese resident is one of 15 confirmed positive Ebola cases in Uganda, WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a briefing.
The WHO is working with Uganda and the UAE to “gather additional information, assess the risk of exposure during travel and to facilitate contact tracing”, Tedros said.
WHO said that as part of contact tracing, 16 people in the UAE and 58 in Uganda who might have been exposed are isolated for monitoring.
The UAE’s Ministry of Health and Prevention said “there are currently no cases of Ebola” in the country, state-run news agency WAM reported on June 3, adding that the traveller carrying the virus did not visit any healthcare facility during his stay in the Gulf nation.
“The authorities had already activated the necessary public health measures, including risk assessment, contact tracing and approved precautionary procedures,” the ministry said.
“No cases have been recorded in the UAE.”
Ebola has spread significantly beyond the mining town where the Democratic Republic of Congo’s outbreak is believed to have begun. Currently only around 45 per cent of Ebola cases are being followed up, Tedros said, a figure that should ideally be above 90 per cent.
There are currently 344 confirmed cases in Congo and 60 deaths. In Uganda, there is one confirmed death and 15 confirmed cases.
The outbreak – caused by the rare Bundibugyo virus – has become one of the most complex Ebola epidemics in recent years, spreading through a conflict-affected region where insecurity, population movements and distrust of the authorities are undermining efforts to identify contacts and isolate cases.
At the same time, health officials are trying to make sense of rapidly changing surveillance data. BLOOMBERG