Tanzanian Airport Screening for Ebola Amid Outbreak in Congo

Airport in Tanzanian commercial capital Dar es Salaam has lately installed Ebola screening facility to ensure no one with the virus should enter the country.

At least twenty people have been killed due to Ebola outbreak in neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). This is the ninth time of such outbreak in the country since 1976. The latest outbreak was first recorded in May 2017 in the northern province of Bas-Uele where four people were killed.

The virus is highly contagious and its symptoms include generalized pain, malaise, diarrhea, vomiting and fever. Ebola fever mortality rate is high and WHO report reveals it is between 50 to 89 percent, depending on the sub-type of the viral.

Tanzanian Deputy Minister for Health, Faustine Ndugulile, said addressing a press conference in Dar es Salaam that that airport will screen all the people so that no person with the virus could enter the country.

A special center has also been set up at the airport to treat diagnosed people.

He said, “We are doing all we can to ensure that the disease does not enter into the country… Nobody has been diagnosed with Ebola in the country until now.”