BURUNDIAN health ministry on Monday, said it will immunise health agents and immigration officers on borders to counter the Ebola virus.

The report came after the first Ebola case in Goma, an eastern city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

Burundian Health Minister, Thaddee Ndikumana stated this at a news conference.

“We are on high alert to counter the Ebola virus, thus we are going to start the immunisation of health agents and immigration officers based on borders with DRC.

“We will also immunise health agents working in hospitals chosen to receive possible cases of Ebola,’’ he said.

Health agents and immigration officers based on borders with other countries will also be immunised, said Ndikumana.

According to him, vaccines will arrive in Burundi on Tuesday.

The minister added that the central African country was conducting Ebola surveillance as recommended by the World Health Organization.

He urged Burundian people to abide by hygiene rules and avoid eating meat of animals found dead.

Burundi has a well-equipped laboratory able to properly diagnose and confirm the Ebola virus, according to him.

The World Health Organization has recently expressed concern that the spread of Ebola in the DRC has escalated in the past few months, with more than 2,000 cases recorded since the epidemic broke out again about a year ago.

The current outbreak is the worst on record after the Ebola epidemic struck mainly Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone between 2014 and 2016, leaving more than 11,300 people dead.

-NAN

BE

– July 16, 2019 @ 08:05 GMT |