Doctors: Govt’s Neglect of Congo Fever Reports Endangers Health Workers

The medical doctors’ body has lambasted government for its failure to protect health workers in the wake of the reported outbreak of Congo Crimean Hemorrhagic Fever in Nakaseke with the urgency and attention required in handling any epidemic.

Weeks ago, authorities in Nakaseke district reported that there was a confirmed outbreak of the Congo fever which they claimed the officials in the Ministry of Health were trying to conceal.

Days later, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health, Dr Diana Atwine and the State Minister for Health, Sarah Opendi dismissed the reports insisting that there was no cause for alarm since sampless of the fever on suspected cases had tested negative.

On Tuesday, the Uganda Medical Association has condemned the Ministry of Health which they blame for not educating the public on the epidemic and failure to protect health workers from getting exposed.

Dr Mukuzi Muhereza the Secretary General of the medics’ Association told journalists that; “We are disappointed by the way the epidemic was handled. There was a confirmed case on December 26 last year and of recent, a death of a suspected case”.

“One confirmed case of the Congo Crimean Hemorrhagic Fever is an epidemic already and it should activate emergency levels,” he added.

He revealed that UMA has been getting information on several other suspected cases but the Ministry of Health continues to refute them without considering the risk at which health workers face.

“This Congo Fever has a 50% mortality rate. Any death or infection of health workers will be put on officials in the Ministry. Our facilities are already lacking protective gear and any infection will be unfortunate,” he said.

“There is a problem and the quicker we respond to it, the better. No medical worker should get infected while government is busy with its ping pong”.

He further described the clandestine manner in which the dead person was hurried as an indicator that the the situation requires urgent attention.

While the Ministry of Health insists that the tests conducted by the Virus Institute did not point to an epidemic, Dr Muhereza says that the global standard 21 day timeline after which an epidemic can be declared terminated, has not yet elapsed.

He said that the Ministry should focus on interrogating the reservoirs from which the confirmed case in December and the other suspected cases acquired the fever.

In September last year, the same disease broke out in Nakaseke district and reportedly killed about eight people.

A person with Congo Crimean Hemorrhagic Fever presents with symptoms including laziness, nausea, uncontrolled bleeding, muscle aches, neck stiffness, backaches, vomiting and abdominal pain.

It is primarily transmitted to human from big mammals through ticks and eating an infected mammal’s tissue.