THERE is a lot of panic over the Ebola outbreak. Patients are running away from hospitals, others are breaking appointments with doctors, people are starting to fear intimate greeting, doctors are on strike and one girl is said to have run away from her boyfriend because he has been in Bundibugyo.

This panic does not help us contain the spread. On the contrary, reactions that result from lack of information can worsen the epidemic.

Certainly, it will get worse because some people, who contracted it before it was confirmed, are still incubating the disease. But that is not an indication that the control measures put in place by the ministry are inadequate or not effective.

Ebola has been defeated in Uganda before. Let us give Government a chance to do its work. But Government too, should ensure that all those who need protection get it, especially medical workers who are at the frontline. But above all, the public needs information. Panic comes when there is no instant, assured, dependable and unlimited source of information on how best to protect oneself.

So far, there is unsatisfactory ministry sensitization and tips on protection in the local media. The few leaflets circulated are inadequate.
The public needs to know that people, who transmit the virus, are those who are already infected.

And this is through direct contact with their secretions (blood, faeces, vomit) or objects contaminated by such secretions. By the time someone gives out such secretions one is usually bed-ridden.