DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania, Oct 4 (NNN-AGENCIES) – Tanzanian health authorities, reiterated that there was no Ebola outbreak in the east African country, and urged people to trash rumours about the outbreak.
“There is no Ebola outbreak in Tanzania. The country is safe and people should not be scared with rumours being spread by social media and some international news outlets,” the Minister for Health, Ummy Mwalimu, told a news conference in Dar es Salaam.
“There is no way you can hide the outbreak of epidemics like Ebola,” said the minister, adding that, samples of two suspected Ebola patients, who died recently were tested and results showed negative.
She said, results of laboratory tests of the two patients were sent to the World Health Organisation (WHO).
However, Mwalimu said, since there was an outbreak of the virus in neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Tanzania was on on high risk and the country already took preparedness and response measures.
She said, statistics from the DRC indicated that by Sept 30, 3,194 people were diagnosed with Ebola and 2,133 of them were killed by the virus.
“Since Tanzania is a neighbour of DRC, the Ministry of Health has taken a number of preparedness and response measures,” said Mwalimu. who was accompanied by top health officials from her ministry.
On Sept 24, the government of Tanzania summoned the country’s WHO representative, following a recent statement by the UN health organisation that the country was not sharing information on results of recent tests of what was described as a strange disease that killed two people.
Hassan Abbasi, director of information services and government chief spokesperson, said, the government summoned the WHO envoy to get a detailed report on the agency’s complaints through the media.
“The WHO representative insisted that the UN health agency has no evidence that there is an Ebola outbreak in Tanzania,” said Abbasi.
The spokesperson said, WHO agreed to follow laid-down procedures by the government of Tanzania when seeking information.
On Sept 14, Tanzanian Minister for Health, Ummy Mwalimu refuted rumours of an Ebola outbreak in the country, saying people should not be scared by the rumours.– NNN-AGENCIES
