1 ebola patient discharged, 102 contacts released after 21 days quarantine
Mbale: Authorities this afternoon have discharged an ebola patient who has been undergoing treatment in Mbale.
Josephino Nadunga, A resident of Mbale City was put under quarantine and put on treatment after testing positive. She was said to have been in contact with her late son a former employee of Mulago Hospital who succumbed to death becoming the first victim of the ebola outbreak in Uganda this year.
This followed the announcement and declaration by Ministry of Health and over 100 contacts were put in quarantine.
7 other contacts tested positive in Kampala and have been undergoing treatment but were discharged yesterday in Kampala Mulago hospital after testing negative.
In Mbale City, 18 members who have been in quarantine were discharged on Monday ,28 discharged on Tuesday while 56 today were discharged today.
28 people are still in quarantine and according to the incident commander Ateki Kajirita, 20 more people shall be discharged tomorrow and the 8 remaining one will be discharged on Friday after completing a 21 day quarantine.
Mbale Regional Referal Acting Hospital director Dr. Mwayafu Daniel called upon the community to welcome them into society freely without stigma.
He also called on Government to equip Mbale with the necessary capacity to fight future outbreaks and make it the command center of epidemics in Eastern Regional.
Dr. Ateki Kajirita welcomed the idea and promised to push the agenda at the National Level. He also urged the Hospital director to put it in writing as a formal step towards the goal.
Dr. Mwayafu noted that though the release of those in quarantine a big step in the struggle, more surveillance has to be done.
“We have to continue with the surveillance. We should stay vigilant and continue with an outlook. ”
The incident commander confirmed that all those discharged have been confirmed negative and should be freely welcomed in society and urged them to be ambassadors in society.
“I have to state that all ebola patients have recovered and that all positive cases we had are negative and are going home.
All contacts in Mbale should be discharged by Friday. Embrace them and use them to spread the message in the next 21 days”.
Moses Wambogo, the Assistant RDC Mbale commended the task force for being swift and the community for being compliant.
“I Thank the Ministry of Health for the swift response. I thank the medical staff and NGOs who exercised alot of vigilance”.
Nasike Asumine the Head of the Task Force in Mbale wad full of praise for the incident commander Kajirita for using his experience to quickly combat the outbreak.
‘I want to thank the Ministry of Health that sent the Incident commander Dr. Kagirita. He used his experience to the maximum and I haven’t seen a better response that this one.”
She commended the task force for being committed irrespective of having no money.
“All the pillars did their work amidst lack of funds and no facilitation but they were committed on ground to ensure that ebola is kicked out of mbale.”
“I want to thank the community that kept on giving us alerts all through.”
She also expressed joy about the way the situation was handled. “We managed to contain the situation, business is normal, children are at school and those in night clubs kept on enjoying.”
She also thanked the medical workers who accepted to go to the front line together with Hotels and schools that accepted to host those under quarantine.
She also commended journalists for positive reporting.
