Uganda orders 21-day quarantine for citizens returning from DR Congo amid Ebola cases abroad

Mixed · 2Uganda's Health Minister Chris Baryomunsi announced on Sunday 25 October that Ugandan citizens returning from the Democratic Republic of Congo will be quarantined for 21 days. 1 2 Centre · 1Returning Ugandans must pay for the quarantine themselves, and, according to the BBC, most travellers who have been in DR Congo will not be allowed to transit through Uganda; Baryomunsi told the BBC only essential travellers would be admitted, under intense public health measures. 3 Mixed · 2Screening has been intensified at Entebbe International Airport and all land border crossings, and all travellers entering by air, land or water must complete a passenger locator form. 1 3

Mixed · 2The measures follow Ebola cases in Kenya and Nigeria in people who had recently passed through Uganda; both travelled through Entebbe airport on the same day, 3 October. 2 1 Centre · 1The Kenyan patient, a businessman who had come from DR Congo, died two days after reaching Nairobi; the BBC reports Kenya has since confirmed eight other cases, including a second death over the weekend. 3 Mixed · 2The Nigerian patient is the 42-year-old Ugandan-born wife of a Swiss diplomat, who returned via Addis Ababa to Abuja on 3 October; Nigeria's Centre for Disease Control says she is isolated and improving, with 53 contacts traced, and Nigeria confirmed her infection on 20 October. 1 2

Mixed · 2Swiss authorities say she was probably infected in Uganda, but Baryomunsi said Switzerland was "speaking prematurely", arguing that relatives who visited her in a Kampala suburb had been to Congo; "We should speak science, not politics," he said. 1 2 Mixed · 2The WHO said the information it had received did not show that the woman herself had travelled to DR Congo, and the BBC notes Ugandan officials had earlier said she went to eastern DR Congo and only transited Uganda; Uganda and Nigeria are now working to establish her movements and possible exposure routes. 2 3 Mixed · 2Health ministry permanent secretary Diana Atwine said CCTV footage showed no physical interaction between the Kenyan and Nigerian patients, and genomic analysis found the Nigerian virus closely related to the Kenyan strain, though Nigerian authorities said no direct link had been established. 1 3

Left · 1Baryomunsi said all 60 contacts traced after the Kenyan case had completed 21 days of monitoring and been discharged. 2 Mixed · 2Uganda says it has no active infections after ending its Bundibugyo outbreak, which recorded 20 cases and two deaths; Al Jazeera and Reuters date the declaration to July (28 July), while the BBC says the WHO declared Uganda free of the disease in August. 2 3 Mixed · 2In DR Congo the outbreak, which began in May, had by 20 October caused 9,704 cases and 4,687 deaths across eight provinces according to the WHO, making it the country's largest; the Bundibugyo strain has no approved vaccine or specific treatment. 2 3

Mixed · 2The WHO's 23 October update urged stronger cross-border monitoring while advising against travel or trade restrictions; separately, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said a nurse was killed and a health worker badly hurt in an attack on Saturday in Bafwasende, northern Congo. 2 1