Museveni explains how Ebola spreads, asks Ugandans to avoid body contact
“Eating wild meat, especially monkeys and other wild animals with the virus, can also spread Ebola,” Museveni warned during a public address on the Ebola situation this evening. The address was broadcast live on all televisions, radios and live social media streams.
Museveni said, unlike COVID-19, which would spread through the air, Ebola can be evaded by avoiding contact. He said Ebola spreads through saliva, blood, sweat, vomit, and sperms.
KAMPALA - President Yoweri Museveni has warned Ugandans to be cautious of the Ebola virus disease, saying it is very dangerous and spreads through contact.
Museveni said, unlike COVID-19, which would spread through the air, Ebola can be evaded by avoiding contact. He said Ebola spreads through saliva, blood, sweat, vomit, and sperms.
He warned Ugandans to be wary of Ebola spreaders like bats, which he said caused the outbreak in West Africa after a boy ate a mango that had been eaten by a bat and contracted the virus before spreading it to others, causing many deaths.
The outbreak in West Africa that happened between 2014 and 2016 is the largest Ebola epidemic in history, and it primarily affected Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. During this outbreak, more than 28,600 cases were reported, and the disease claimed over 11,000 lives.
“Eating wild meat, especially monkeys and other wild animals with the virus, can also spread Ebola,” Museveni warned during a public address on the Ebola situation this evening. The address was broadcast live on all televisions, radios and live social media streams.
He said the spread of Ebola was due to indiscipline by some people. In the current outbreak that happened in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in May this year, Museveni said medical workers and pastors, who carelessly touch patients, were spreading the virus.
“Medics touch patients without protective gear, while pastors touch patients in the name of healing them, and end up spreading the virus. Why do you touch believers? You can pray for someone without touching them because you are just interceding. You can pray for them, and God hears your prayers because He is not deaf,” Museveni noted.
The Ebola Bundibugyo strain broke out in the eastern DRC last month. On May 17, the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared the Ebola outbreak an international emergency.
While meeting the WHO director general, Dr Adhanom Ghebreyesus Tedros at State House Entebbe on Monday, Museveni emphasised the importance of regional cooperation and swift public health interventions to prevent the spread of the disease.
According to the health ministry, Uganda has been managing 19 Ebola cases. Of these, 14 are members of the same family who entered Uganda from the DRC.
The five were Ugandans, including four health workers, who interacted with the Congolese patients.
To contain Ebola from the epicentre in DRC, Uganda has sent 160 health workers there, who will be deployed in four teams of 40 personnel each.