Ebola restrictions remain in place
Nnasaretha Kgamanyane | Thursday April 9, 2015 15:53
MoH chief public relations officer, Doreen Motshegwa told Mmegi yesterday that the ministry retains entry restrictions that were imposed last August. She said while the situation has stabilised, it does not mean that the country is off the danger zone. She stated that Botswana has not had Ebola case.
Last year, August 12, the Government of Botswana announced a travel ban for all non-Botswana citizens traveling from Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Nigeria, as a measure to contain the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) outbreak. Later, on August 25, the Government of Botswana announced the extension of these travel restrictions to Democratic Republic of Congo.
It has also advised Botswana citizens to delay travel to Ebola affected countries unless travel is absolutely essential. MoH had announced that the restrictions would apply until the spread of the Ebola virus is contained.
At the time, Botswana had joined forces with other Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries that once heartedly agreed to ban travel from these countries.
The Ebola outbreak in West Africa was first reported in March 2014, and has rapidly become the deadliest occurrence of the disease since its discovery in 1976. However, reports say that the current epidemic swept across the region where it killed five times more than all other known Ebola outbreaks combined in history.
A year on from the first confirmed case recorded on 23 March 2014, more than 10,460 people had been reported as having died from the disease in six countries; Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, the US and Mali. The total number of reported cases is more than 24,740.
According to World Health Organization (WHO), 10,460 deaths probable, confirmed and suspected include one in the US and six in Mali, 4,332 Liberia, 3,799 Sierra Leone, 2,314 Guinea and eight in Nigeria. However, WHO admits the figures are underestimates, given the difficulty in collecting the data. WHO also stated that its official, in December discovered scores of bodies in a remote diamond-mining area of Sierra Leone, raising fears that the scale of the Ebola outbreak may have been underreported.
“The WHO has declared the outbreaks in Nigeria and Senegal officially over, as there have been no new cases reported since 5 September,” it states.
Even though some countries have been declared free from the deadly Ebola, Guinea has detected at least three new cases of Ebola in the alumina hub of Fria.
In Guinea, more than 2,200 people are believed to have died since the epidemic was first detected a year ago. Some 50 people remain hospitalized in Ebola treatment centres.However, some countries are declared Ebola free. First to be declared Ebola free was Senegal on October 17, 2014, followed by Nigeria on October 20, 2014 and Spain on December 2, 2014. On January 18, 2015, Mali declared free of Ebola with the United Kingdom being the latest on March 7, 2015.