Uganda repatriates Ebola cases to DRC

HEALTH

KAMPALA - The governments of Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo have reached an agreement for the repatriation of the six confirmed Ebola patients back to the DRC. This came through a meeting held between the Ministry of Health representatives in Uganda and their DRC counterparts.

Uganda's Health Minister, Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng in a statement on Thursday revealed that during the meeting, the teams from DRC requested Uganda to repatriate the Congolese that were confirmed Ebola cases and were being managed at the Bwera ETU.

"They proposed to repatriate six Ebola patients back to DRC to enable them access medicines for therapeutic treatment which are available in the DRC as well as receive family support and comfort since they had six other relatives who had remained behind in DRC and five of whom had also been confirmed positive for Ebola," the minister stated.

She, however, stated that the repatriation is on condition that the patients and their relatives give informed consent and willingly accept to go to the DRC while those who are not willing to consent will be retained and managed in Uganda.

The five patients due for repatriation include; one confirmed case; brother of the deceased index case and four suspected cases who are; mother of the deceased index case, her six-month-old baby, their maid and father of the deceased index case who is a Ugandan.

The DRC team yesterday at around 10:00 am successfully repatriated five people. These according to the minister's statement are the mother of the deceased index case, her six-month-old baby, the maid, and the three-year-old confirmed Ebola case.

The father of the deceased index case who is Ugandan also agreed to be repatriated with his family. All the six people who entered Uganda from DRC have now been accounted for.

The minister also stated that as of now, there is no confirmed case of Ebola in Uganda. However, three suspected cases not related to the deceased index case remain in isolation at Bwera Hospital Ebola Treatment Unit. 

"Their blood samples have been sent to Uganda Virus Research Institute (UVRI) and results are pending," she said.