This archive report was first published on 18 July 2019.
On July 18, 2019, Rwanda's health authorities dismissed concerns of an Ebola outbreak in the country, following reports that a fishmonger who died of the virus may have carried the disease into Rwanda.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the fishmonger had crossed into Rwanda's Gisenyi town, which borders the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), after vomiting at a market in Mpondwe on the Ugandan border.
Malic Kayumba, Head of Communications at Rwanda Biomedical Centre, stated, 'There is no Ebola in Rwanda as far as we are concerned. We have a strong surveillance system in place that helps us to prevent its entry.'
Mr. Kayumba added, 'We investigate every day and have a system that informs us of all we need to know, and such news would be coming from us. If there was entry of a suspected Ebola victim we would have known.'
The WHO identified 12 high-risk contacts with the woman, including the motorcyclist who transported her into Uganda, but did not mention any high-risk Ebola contacts in Rwanda.
Rwanda's health ministry had previously urged citizens to avoid unnecessary travel to eastern DRC and to report to the nearest screening station if they were coming from an Ebola-affected area.
The country has never had a recorded case of Ebola and has trained over 23,000 medical personnel, police officers, and volunteers in preparation to fight outbreaks.
