Uganda Takes Steps To Prevent Deadly Illness From Crossing Border As Ebola Outbreak Spreads In Congo
Health officials in Uganda have put up screening devices at the border, including requiring temperature checks and chlorine baths for disinfecting shoes. So far, laboratory results cleared all six suspected cases. Meanwhile in the Congo, health officials' worry about stopping the spread of the disease in war zones.
The Washington Post:
Ebola Outbreak Now At 105 Cases, And Bordering Countries Are On Alert
On Tuesdays and Fridays, an estimated 19,000 people stream down the hill from Congo’s North Kivu province to cross the border into this small town (Mpondwe, Uganda), many of them headed to a sprawling open-air market. In recent weeks, crossing the border has become more difficult as Ugandan health authorities have beefed up precautions against the spread of the Ebola virus. An outbreak centered in North Kivu is responsible for 105 confirmed or suspected cases, including 67 deaths, according to Robert Redfield, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who has just returned from the area. (Sun and Bernstein, 8/24)
The Wall Street Journal:
Health Officials Worried About Containing Latest Ebola Outbreak
The world has never been so prepared for an Ebola outbreak, but the latest emergence of the virus in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s conflict-ridden east is proving the most dangerous in years. Seventy-two out of 111 patients who have been infected with the hemorrhagic fever have died, making this outbreak the deadliest in more than a decade in Congo, where the disease was first diagnosed in 1976 and named after the nearby Ebola River. (Bariyo and McKay, 8/26)
