Authorities in Rwanda on Thursday refuted reports that the fishmonger responsible for Uganda’s renewed Ebola surveillance, had crossed into the border town of Gisenyi.
“There is no Ebola in Rwanda as far as we are concerned. We have a strong surveillance system in place that helps us to prevent its entry,” Malic Kayumba, Head of Communications at Rwanda Biomedical Centre told The East African.
‘‘We investigate every day and have a system that informs us of all we need to know, and such news would be coming from us. If there was entry of a suspected Ebola victim we would have known.”
There had been reports by the Word Health Organization (WHO) that the fishmonger who vomited at a popular market in Uganda’s border Mpondwe town, might also have done business in Rwanda before returning to DRC where she died.
WHO has since withdrawn the reports which were reportedly published without the knowledge of WHO headquarters in Geneva.
“Two situation reports… have erroneously included unverified information,” a statement from WHO said late on Thursday.
The statement did not explain what was unverified in the reports, or mention Rwanda, which is on high alert after a confirmed case of a pastor who later died in the Congolese border city of Goma.
The city of more than 1 million serves as a regional and international gateway and borders Rwanda, which said on Thursday it was intensifying screening at ports of entry and asked citizens to avoid unnecessary travel to Ebola-affected areas.
Rwanda has never had a recorded case of Ebola and has trained over 23,000 medical personnel, police officers and volunteers in preparation to fight outbreaks.
