KASSANDA, UGANDA: The ministry of health has revealed that 23 of the 42 Ebola cases registered in Kassanda district are a result of locals exhuming dead bodies already buried by the Ebola task force.
In addition to the alarming figures, the officials say at least 546 contacts have been traced out and are currently being monitored to establish if there are any further cases.
Dr Geofrey Bwire, the assistant commissioner in the Ministry of Health, said when specialised district burial teams bury those who have died of Ebola, residents exhume the bodies at night to perform rituals on them.
“About two weeks ago, our teams buried someone in Kalwana Village, Kikandwa Sub-county, who had succumbed to Ebola but the locals waited for them to leave and at night, they exhumed the body and performed burial rituals on it. Since bodies of those who have died from Ebola are highly infectious, many people were infected,” Dr Bwire told a meeting on Ebola response in the district yesterday.
Dr Munir Safieldin, the Unicef representative, called for more community sensitisation.
“The communities highly regard rituals. So we need to have a different approach to behaviour change and that is what we advocate for at Unicef. There are not enough police officers to guard the graves of those who have died of Ebola but sensitising them (residents) about the dangers of touching bodies would solve this challenge,” Dr Safieldin said.
Meanwhile, the Health minister, Dr Jane Ruth Aceng has cautioned residents against exhuming the bodies, saying they risk having the district population wiped away.
“The communities need to understand that those bodies are very infectious. That is the message the leaders need to carry to the communities,” Dr Aceng said.
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