TANZANIA
September 27,2019: US issues travel advisory
The United States on Friday warned its
citizens to take extra care when visiting Tanzania amid concerns over Ebola,
adding to calls for the East African country to share information about
suspected cases of the deadly disease there.
U.S. travellers should “exercise increased
caution”, the State Department said in an updated travel advisory that cited
reports of “a probable Ebola-related death in Dar es Salaam”.
Days earlier, the head of the U.S. Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention travelled to Tanzania at the direction of
U.S. Health Secretary Alex Azar, who had also criticised the country for not
sharing information.
There is no Ebola outbreak in Tanzania as
we speak, people should not panic.
Tanzania denies the reports, saying no
cases of Ebola have been confirmed, but with transparency key to combating the
deadly and fast-spreading haemorrhagic fever, the government is under mounting
pressure to provide clarification.
The foreign affairs ministry was not
immediately available on Saturday for comment on the U.S. advisory.
Authorities in east and central Africa have
been on high alert for possible spillovers of Ebola from the Democratic
Republic of Congo, where a year-long outbreak has killed more than 2,100
people.
Tanzania and DRC share
a border that is separated by a lake.
September 24,2019: WHO official summoned
Tanzania on Tuesday summoned the World
Health Organization’s local representative, who over the weekend asserted that
the government refused to share information on suspected Ebola cases.
Transparency and speed are key to combating
the deadly hemorrhagic fever because it can spread rapidly. Anyone deemed to
have been in contact with potentially infected people must be quarantined and
the public warned to step up precautions such as handwashing.
Government spokesman Hassan Abbasi said on
Twitter that WHO country representative
Tigest Ketsela Mengestu was summoned by deputy foreign affairs minister Damas
Ndumbaro, in the commercial capital Dar es Salaam.
“The representative insisted that the WHO has not declared that there is Ebola in Tanzania,
nor does it have any evidence on that and pledged to cooperate with the
government,” Abbasi said.
“During the talks, the WHO agreed to strictly follow guidelines outlined by the
agency itself and ratified by the government if it wants to get any additional
information from the Tanzanian government.”
WHO spokeswoman Fadela Chaib told reporters in Geneva on Tuesday that
the agency had not received any information after it had requested Tanzanian
authorities to assess potential risks from the recent incidences.
She ruled out any punitive action, and
reiterated that WHO had advised against any
travel or trade restrictions based on the present circumstances.
“What we need to do is to continue communicating
with them and provide them with help and expertise. We cannot sanction a
country. It is not our mandate,” Chaib said.
September 21,2019: Tanzania withheld information: WHO
WHO said late on Saturday it was made aware on Sept. 10 of the death
of a patient in Dar es Salaam, and was unofficially told the next day that the
person had tested positive for Ebola. The woman had died on Sept. 8.
In its weekend statement, WHO said it was unofficially told that Tanzania had two
other possible Ebola cases. One had tested negative and there was no
information on the other.
Officially, the Tanzanian government had
said in the previous week it had no confirmed or suspected cases of Ebola. The
government did not address the death of the woman directly and did not provide
further information.
September 18,2019: WHO confirms Tanzania’s Ebola denial
Tanzania has refuted allegations of
harbouring an Ebola case in the country, formally telling the World Health
Organisation (WHO), it had conducted investigations on
suspicious cases and ruled out the deadly virus.
“This followed earlier rumours of the death
of one person and illness in a few others,” the WHO said
in a statement on Wednesday.
“Tanzanian authorities did not indicate
what the cause of the illnesses might have been.”
The WHO received
the notification on Sept. 14, the statement said. It was unclear why it took
four days to make it public.
Suspicions of Ebola
The suspicion of Ebola in Taanzania had
been fuelled by a woman died there earlier this month from an unknown illness
following Ebola-like symptoms.
The WHO announcement
came a day after the head of a U.S. government health agency travelled to
Tanzania at the direction of America’s health secretary, Alex Azar.
Azar criticized Tanzania earlier this week
for not sharing information, saying on Monday he was aware of a death in
Tanzania and that the government had reported two suspected cases who tested
negative for Ebola.
“The government of Tanzania, however, has
not made available the samples or the ability to test the index case of the
individual who died, nor has it made available any other information,” Azar
told reporters during a prearranged tour of Uganda, Rwanda and Democratic
Republic of Congo (DRC) to evaluate their Ebola
response, according to a transcript of his remarks.
He called on Tanzania to comply with
international obligations to share information and allow independent
verification of test results.
Tanzania comes clean
Tanzania’s health minister said on Saturday
that the government had investigated two recent cases of unknown illnesses, but
they were not Ebola.
“The two patients did not have Ebola,” Ummy
Mwalimu told reporters. “There is no Ebola outbreak in Tanzania as we speak,
people should not panic.”
She did not say if the two cases
investigated included the death of the woman. The ministry did not answer calls
on Wednesday.
There is increased vigilance across East
Africa after an outbreak of Ebola in the DRC killed
more than 2,000 people. It is the second-largest Ebola outbreak in global
history.
Concern has focused on a woman who died on
Sept. 8 in Dar es Salaam, after exhibiting symptoms common to several diseases,
including Ebola. There was no indication the woman had travelled to an affected
area or had contact with an infected person.
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