A senior health official in Uganda says “the situation is being handled well” in neighboring Congo after the World Health Organization said the latest Ebola outbreak there is not yet a global emergency.
But Uganda’s director of health services, Henry Mwebesa, tells The Associated Press that twice-weekly market days during which 10,000 Congolese cross into Uganda have put the country at “big risk.”
He says unofficial border crossing points also are a cause for concern.
This outbreak of the highly infectious Ebola virus in northeastern Congo has killed 107 people.
Mwebesa says 222 suspected cases of Ebola have been identified and isolated in Uganda but none have tested positive. He says travelers arriving from Congo are screened for a high body temperature.
Uganda has had five Ebola outbreaks since 2000.