Police stop visits to inmates over Ebola

By Darious Magara and Innocent Anguyo

The Police have halted visitation of inmates in all prisons across the city and neighbouring districts.

The move is aimed at curbing the spread of the deadly Ebola haemorrhagic fever among inmates and other people.

Addressing the media at a weekly Police briefing yesterday, Kampala Metropolitan Police spokesperson Ibin Ssenkumbi yesterday said the visitors will only be given access to the suspects if the reason is serious enough.

“We hereby call upon friends, relatives and sympathisers of suspects to refrain from visiting them in the meantime because they will not be allowed to meet them (suspects),” he reiterated.

Ssenkumbi, however, noted that the move is temporary, saying once the Ministry of Health declares the country Ebola-free, the suspects will receive visitors normally.

The move comes two days after the Ebola virus claimed another life on Sunday, bringing the death toll in the latest outbreak of the infectious disease in the country to five.

Halima Nakimbugwe, 29, died at Bombo Hospital five days after she was admitted on Tuesday last week.

Nakimbugwe is suspected to have contracted the disease while nursing her husband, a bodaboda operator, who was the first person to die in the latest outbreak of the epidemic in Luwero district.

Two other people confirmed to have been infected with the virus have been admitted at Mulago Hospital.

Another 12 suspected to have contracted the deadly virus are also admitted at Mulago, while another six are at Bombo Hospital.

Health Intelligence also reveals that the number of people suspected to have contracted the epidemic had risen from 34 to 40.