Ebola: Uganda restricts border transit, reinstates locator forms

Uganda remains Ebola-free as Health ministry probes Nigerian traveller infected with virus

Uganda’s Ministry of Health has instituted heightened public health precautionary measures, including reinstating mandatory traveller locator forms and restricting transit for specific passengers, following an ongoing investigation into a traveller who tested positive for Bundibugyo Virus Disease after arriving in Nigeria.

In an official public statement, the Director General of Health Services, Prof Charles Olaro, revealed that initial findings indicate the female traveller did not display symptoms at the time of her departure from the country.
"Available information indicates that the traveller did not exhibit symptoms at the time of departure from Uganda. However, investigations are continuing to establish the timing of symptom onset and the circumstances surrounding her infection," Prof Olaro stated.

The Ministry of Health is currently collaborating with Nigerian health authorities to trace the traveller’s complete travel history, movements, and potential exposure routes. Ugandan officials have also requested additional details from Nigeria, including detailed travel itineraries and genomic sequencing results where available. Technical support and inter-agency collaboration are being provided by international partners, including the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (US CDC), and the World Health Organisation (WHO).

To prevent potential transmission and strengthen national health security, the ministry has rolled out several precautionary control measures at all points of entry and exit across the country. According to Prof Olaro, traveller locator forms have been reinstated for all incoming travellers, regardless of their origin, to ensure swift contact tracing and follow-up if required. Furthermore, infection prevention and control protocols have been reinforced at border crossings and health facilities, while surveillance efforts continue across the country.

As part of the strict border measures, travellers with a recent history of travel to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) will temporarily not be permitted to transit through Uganda.
"Applicable provisions of the Public Health Act will be invoked where public health requirements are breached. Persons entering the country through unauthorised routes will be referred to the relevant authorities for appropriate action under the law," Prof Olaro warned.
The ministry urged local border communities to remain vigilant and report any suspected unauthorized border crossings to facilitate proper screening and public health follow-up.

Despite the ongoing investigation and mandatory precautions, health authorities reiterated that Uganda has not recorded any active internal outbreak.
"The Ministry of Health wishes to assure the country that Uganda remains Ebola-free. Travellers, visitors and the general public are urged to remain calm and vigilant, practise proper hand hygiene, and comply with screening and other public health measures at all points of entry," Prof Olaro noted.

Health officials across Africa are racing to determine how Nigeria's first Ebola patient in more than a decade became infected, amid concerns regarding the regional scope of the virus. The Swiss government stated that the patient in Nigeria, who is the Ugandan-born wife of a Swiss diplomat based in Abuja, had not travelled to the DRC, where the outbreak was first detected in mid-May before spreading to Uganda, Kenya, and Nigeria.

The Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs noted the woman was believed to have contracted Ebola while travelling with her husband in Uganda, which the WHO declared Ebola-free in August. The outbreak has now been reported across four countries in eastern, central, and western Africa, representing the widest geographic spread of any Ebola outbreak on the continent to date.

The possibility that the Nigerian patient became infected in Uganda, where officials say she spent a two-week holiday before returning to Abuja, has raised questions regarding undetected transmission. While Ugandan authorities noted the woman had been in eastern DRC before transiting through Uganda, both the WHO and Africa CDC indicated that this detail remains to be confirmed.

Nigerian authorities tested the woman for Ebola 13 days after she fell ill in Abuja. One theory under investigation is whether the patient contracted the virus from Kenya's first confirmed Ebola patient, who also departed from Uganda's Entebbe International Airport on the same day in early October before dying two days later in a Nairobi hospital.
However, experts have cautioned against drawing firm conclusions without clear epidemiological evidence, emphasizing that Ebola spreads primarily through direct contact with infected bodily fluids or contaminated objects.

"I think that is very speculative unless there is evidence of sharing the same space in a manner that could explain that," said Marion Koopmans, a Dutch virologist and member of the WHO's Ebola emergency committee. "Random presence at the same location, a large airport, is not a supported epidemiological link by any standard of what we currently know."
The WHO's representative to Kenya, Neema Rusibamayila Kimambo, similarly noted that the timing of both departures could be coincidental.

"Among the contacts that we even have here in country, even all those who are on the plane with this patient and all airport staff, we have not had any infections in that group," Kimambo stated.
Uganda previously reported 20 Ebola cases in May and June, most of which were imported from the DRC, but has not detected a local case since June. Addressing the national health status, Ugandan government spokesperson Alan Kasujja reaffirmed that the country had no active Ebola cases and maintained that authorities would transparently disclose any new health developments to the public.

Ebola has infected nearly 10,000 people and killed more than 4,600 in the DRC during the current outbreak. The disease causes symptoms including fever, vomiting, diarrhoea, and severe internal or external bleeding, with transmission occurring only after symptom onset. The rare Ebola species identified in this outbreak currently has no standard approved treatment or vaccine.

Members of the public in Uganda seeking additional information or wishing to report alerts have been advised by health officials to contact the Ministry of Health toll-free hotline on 0800-100-066, send an alert SMS to 6767, or reach out via U-Report on 8500.