Uganda's Ebola responders fret as some people fight measures
Ugandan health officials say they have controlled the spread of a strain of Ebola that has no proven vaccine, But there are pockets of resistance to health measures in rural communities where illiteracy is high and restrictions on movement and business activity have left many bitter
By RODNEY MUHUMUZA
Published - Nov 02, 2022, 10:42 AM ET
Last Updated - Jun 23, 2023, 09:36 PM EDT
KASSANDA, Uganda (AP) — The recent explosion of Ebola virus cases in a Ugandan rural community began when defiant residents exhumed a body at night, undoing the work of a safe burial team in order to give the deceased man a proper Islamic funeral.
Within days, at least 23 of the mourners had contracted Ebola and three were dead, prompting Uganda's health minister to say she hoped the members of the farming community in the district of Kassanda had learnt their lesson.
But it seems not everyone had.
In a recent community discussion of the challenges health teams face in combating the current outbreak of a strain of Ebola with no proven vaccine, the district's Ebola incident commander cited pockets of resistance to health measures.
