BUJUMBURA, July 16 (Xinhua/GNA) – Burundian health ministry said on Monday it is going to immunize health agents and immigration officers on borders to counter the Ebola virus, following the first Ebola case in Goma, an eastern city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) .
« We’re on high alert to counter the Ebola virus. We are going to start the immunization of health agents and immigration officers based on borders with DRC. We will also immunize health agents working in hospitals chosen to receive possible cases of Ebola, » Burundian Health Minister Thaddee Ndikumana said here in a press conference.
Health agents and immigration officers based on borders with other countries will also be immunized, said Ndikumana.
Vaccines will arrive in Burundi on Tuesday, he said.
The minister said the central African country was conducting Ebola surveillance as recommended by the World Health Organization, and recommended the Burundian people to abide by hygiene rules and avoid eating meat of animals found dead.
Burundi has a well-equipped laboratory able to properly diagnose and confirm the Ebola virus, according to him.
The World Health Organization has recently expressed concern that the spread of Ebola in the DRC has escalated in the past few months, with more than 2,000 cases recorded since the epidemic broke out again about a year ago.
The current outbreak is the worst on record after the Ebola epidemic struck mainly Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone between 2014 and 2016, leaving more than 11,300 people dead.
