KINGSTON – Jamaica cautioned against travel to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Uganda as the African countries grapple with an outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus.
“The Ministry of Health and Wellness wishes to advise members of the public to review their travel plans and avoid travelling to or transiting through affected countries,” the Ministry of Health and Wellness said in a statement.
It said that the move follows the World Health Organization’s (WHO) declaration of the Ebola outbreak in the two countries as a public health emergency of international concern and that that although the WHO assesses the risk as high in the African region and low globally, it has further enhanced its port-of-entry health surveillance.
The ministry said that travellers who have visited affected countries within the last 21 days and show no symptoms will be required to self-quarantine under health supervision, while symptomatic persons will be treated as suspected cases and isolated.
The ministry is also urging the public to obtain health information from official and authorised channels only.
On Monday, WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the Ebola outbreak is outpacing urgent efforts to scale up a response adding that responders were “playing catch-up”.
Ebola is a severe and often fatal viral illness and the WHO said average case fatality rate is around 50 per cent, with past outbreaks ranging from 25 to 90 per cent.
The largest Ebola outbreak on record occurred between 2014 and 2016 in West Africa, when the disease spread across Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia and caused more deaths than all previous outbreaks combined. (CMC)
