Kawaala Health Center III in Lubaga Division has registered five suspected Ebola cases. The suspects comprise three women, one man, and a child below three years of age, who came to the facility with one of the female suspects.
A health worker at the facility, says the male suspect called them whimpering, and expressed fears that he could have contracted the Ebola virus. The man, who was bleeding from different openings of his body and had a fever, told the health workers that he had contact with some people from Mubende district recently.
The suspects have been isolated in a tent in the compound of Kawaala health center where the female suspects were offered seats while the male lay on a bed, on which he had been wheeled from one of the rooms at the facility. Two health workers dressed in blue protective attires, gloves, gumboots, and head covers were seen attending to the suspects.
Health workers were heard complaining that they had called for an ambulance from the Ministry of Health to pick up the suspects since morning but to no avail. Uganda Radio Network-URN spent over an hour at the facility and by the time our report left, the suspects were yet to be evacuated.
In a separate interview with URN on Monday, Dr. Alex Ndyabakira, the Ebola incident commander at Kampala Capital City Authority-KCCA, said that all health facilities had been instructed to establish a waiting area where suspected or confirmed Ebola cases would be held before they are evacuated to the treatment center in Entebbe or the isolation centers in Mulago and Naguru Hospitals.
He said the authority is working closely with the Ministry of Health to manage the situation. Dr. Ndyabakira could not be reached for a comment on this particular story as calls to his known phone numbers went unanswered. The Kampala Capital City Authority- KCCA spokesperson, Simon Kasyate, said he was not privy to any information regarding the suspects at Kawaala when contacted.
“I don’t have any information to that effect but I can find out,” said Kasyate during a phone conversation with URN.
