EBOLA PANIC: Christmas travel could see disease SPREAD out of Congo – ‘It’s moving CLOSER’

The DRC is currently gripped by its second-worst Ebola outbreak on record, with as many as 319 dead since it began in August. So far, cases have been largely recorded in conflict-plagued regions to the east of the DRC and infections are now being reported just 40 miles from the Ugandan border. Experts at the World Health Organisation (WHO) are now warning there is a “high risk” the virus will spread to Uganda as tens of thousands of people visit shops and family for Christmas.

Andrew Bakainaga, a senior WHO official in Uganda, said: “Christmas is a particular concern because we know there is a lot of movement as people buy food and visit family.

“We expect the number of people moving across the border might increase from around 300,000 to 500,000 per month.”

Congo’s ministry of health revealed earlier this week that more than 490 cases of Ebola have been confirmed in North Kivu province, which borders Uganda to the east and Rwanda to the south.

The virus causes a range of grim symptoms which typically include fever, severe headache and vomiting.

In more serious cases it causes haemorrhaging which can be fatal. Nearly 60 percent of those infected are killed by the virus.

Ebola can be quickly spread through blood or bodily fluids and officials in Uganda are taking steps to stop the disease spreading across the border.

Commuters making their way across the frontier are directed to wash their hands and shoes in heavily chlorinated water as health workers take temperatures in an attempt to identify those already infected.

Samuel Kasimba, a health official in charge of coordinating the effort to stop Ebola from entering Uganda, said: “We aim at detecting any suspected cases early, before that person has many contacts. We use radio programs and village health teams to educate people about Ebola.

“Confirmed cases are within 70 km and this distance keeps on reducing. The outbreak is moving closer to Uganda. In case it comes, God forbid, we are ready.”

In collaboration with WHO, Ugandan authorities have vaccinated about 3,000 frontline health workers with an experimental drug designed to protect them against the virus.

Meanwhile, more than 40,000 people in the DRC have received the vaccine.

The highly contagious Ebola virus was first discovered in the DRC in the 1970s. It was named after the Ebola river in the east of the country.