President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda has ordered traditional healers to stop treating patients during the existing Ebola outbreak, which has already claimed the lives of 19 individuals there.
Additionally, the president instructed security personnel to detain anyone who refuses to enter isolation after being suspected of harboring the virus.
He instructed herbalists and traditional healers not to treat those who were thought to be sick with the viral hemorrhagic fever in a televised address to the nation, during which he shifted to the widely spoken Luganda language to address them directly.
It comes after the passing of a 45-year-old man who was reported as having been exposed to the Ebola virus by medical personnel.
The man, who passed away in a Kampala, Uganda, hospital, had left his village in Mubende district, the outbreak’s epicentre.
He sought treatment from a traditional healer elsewhere before turning up at the Kampala hospital and died hours after being admitted there, authorities said.
Some of the man’s family members have been put under quarantine, while others have gone into hiding. The president urged them to report to health facilities.
Although Mr Museveni said there were currently no confirmed cases of Ebola in Kampala, he warned the public to continue being vigilant, assuring that health workers would bring the outbreak under control.
It has been almost a month since Uganda confirmed the outbreak of the Sudan strain of Ebola, which has now spread to five districts.
There have been 54 confirmed cases so far. Some 20 people, including five medical workers, have recovered.
Source: BBC
