Rwanda ready to respond to Ebola outbreak: premier
Rwanda has put in place preventive, surveillance, and treatment measures to respond to any potential Ebola outbreak in the country while safeguarding public health and economic activity, an official said Saturday.
The Prime Minister Justin Nsengiyumva made the remarks while briefing reporters in Kigali, Rwanda’s capital city.
“We are confident that we are equipped to protect the lives of our citizens without disrupting socioeconomic activities,” he said.
He appealed to residents to remain vigilant, ensure hygiene and report suspected cases.
Speaking at the same press conference, the Minister of Health Sabin Nsanzimana explained that the country has built capacity on five fronts, including communication, surveillance, diagnostic capacity, capacity for contact tracing and case management with established treatment centers.
He said while no Ebola case has been reported in Rwanda, teams are activated in different institutions of the country and awareness is being done as authorities monitor the trends of the current outbreak in neighboring the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Uganda.
Nsanzimana said Rwanda has built capacity to detect all Ebola strains from the country's labs and treatment centers are in place with trained personnel conducting simulations on handling patients, infection prevention control among other things.
“Ebola is not far from our borders but you don’t wait to know when it is too close, so we have been closely following what is happening in DRC and Uganda. Our aim is to know exactly the trends and how we adapt our capabilities,” he said.
Last month, Rwanda announced that travellers arriving in the country from the DRC within the last 30-day period will be subjected to mandatory quarantine in line with public health protocols, as the country intensified measures to prevent Ebola virus disease spread.
The government also said all foreign nationals who have travelled to or transited through the DRC within the last 30 days prior to their intended travel to Rwanda will be denied entry.
Since the current outbreak was declared on May 15, the number of confirmed Ebola cases in the DRC has surpassed 450 including 82 deaths, according to the country’s Ministry of Health situation update issued Friday.
The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) launched Friday a joint six-month continental preparedness and response plan on the ongoing Ebola outbreak caused by the Bundibugyo virus.
The plan aims to raise 518 million U.S. dollars to support African countries together with partners to prepare for, rapidly detect and respond to the outbreak.
