Mbandaka, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Nearly 50 staff from the World Health Organization (WHO) and its partners have arrived in Mbandaka in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), to tackle yet another outbreak of Ebola in the country. The responders carried 3,500 doses of Ebola vaccine and 2,000 cartridges …
Read More »DR Congo reports fresh Ebola outbreak
Kinshasa, DR Congo | AFP | DR Congo on Monday reported a fresh Ebola outbreak in the country’s northwest, just weeks before it hoped to declare the end of another epidemic in the east. The appearance of the deadly disease on the other side of the vast central African country comes as an added blow …
Read More »Trucking in the COVID-19 era: A driver’s nightmare
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | In my 31 years as a driver, I have never seen anything like this…” This was John Lubowa’s first remark as he sat down to narrate the truck drivers’ current ordeal as they transport goods across the East African region during the coronavirus crisis. Lubowa …
Read More »Coronavirus fails to halt conflict in DRC’s powder-keg east
Goma, DR Congo | AFP | Coronavirus has swiftly gained status as the world’s No. 1 threat but in eastern DR Congo, one of Africa’s most volatile regions, militia killings and ethnic violence are an older and — for now — far greater source of dread. Some 2,000 kilometres (1,200 …
Read More »MSF doctors return to Guinea to fight virus
Conakry, Guinea | AFP | Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has reopened its Ebola-era hospital in Guinea, only four years since that epidemic ended, as coronavirus cases soar in the West African state. The country is struggling to curb the virus, despite enacting imposing travel restrictions and a night-time curfew, raising fears …
Read More »VIDEO: When Dr Tedros warned that world is vulnerable to pandemics
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT & AFP | Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the Director-General of the World Health Organization who has been criticised by the US for his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, warned for years that countries were not prepared in case one broke out. The most shocking outbreak at …
Read More »Ebola outbreak: Uganda tightens health surveillance along Lake Albert shores
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | There is heightened health surveillance and security along Lake Albert shores in Bunyoro districts following the fresh outbreak of Ebola in the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo-DRC. Over the weekend, DRC reported three cases of the highly contagious fever in the eastern part of the …
Read More »DR Congo Ebola outbreak still international emergency: WHO
Geneva, Switzerland | AFP | The World Health Organization said Tuesday it was extending its global emergency designation of the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo after fresh cases were detected. The announcement comes just a day after the vast central African country had been expected to announce that its outbreak was …
Read More »Security tightened at Katwe landing site after new ebola cases in DRC
Kasese, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Marine Security and surveillance on Lake Edward, on the border side of Kasese District, has been beefed up after the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) recorded new cases of Ebola in the country’s eastern side. The first case was a 26-year-old electrician from Beni, a …
Read More »In DR Congo, a pioneering doctor fights Ebola and coronavirus
Kinshasa, DR Congo | AFP | Few generals would choose to fight a war on two fronts, against a foe that is nearly invisible and at times seems to have the terrifying ability to surface anywhere. Yet this is exactly the mission that Dr. Jean-Jacques Muyembe has taken upon himself, and …
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