Mozambique has intensified routine surveillance measures at its entry points and within its territory to ensure that there no cases of a deadly Ebola virus, a senior Health ministry official has said.
The Ebola outbreak, which was previously confined to one area in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), has now spread to the city of Goma, an area of two million people that lies on the DRC’s border with Rwanda, putting neighbouring countries and the southern African region at risk of the disease.
Mozambique’s national director of public health Rosa Marlene told journalists in the capital Maputo on Wednesday that there was so far no recorded cases of the disease and “there is, therefore, no
cause for agitation and panic.”
“There is no Ebola in Mozambique or neighboring Malawi,” Marlene said, noting that the DRC is the country where the disease is currently concentrated despite the existence of two cases outside that central African country, namely Uganda and Rwanda.
She added: “But what we are seeing in recent days is that we are
talking about Ebola in Malawi. There is no Ebola in Malawi.”
The official said her ministry had recommended that the provinces in border areas fee on high alert because of where the panic came from, but in fact there is no record of the disease.
Ebola is a disease caused by a virus of the same name, and its main
symptom is hemorrhagic fever, which causes bleeding in internal
organs, vomiting and, according to the World Health Organization, is severe and often fatal, with a fatality rate of up to 90
percent.
CM/jn/APA