Uganda will quarantine its citizens returning with a history of travel to the Democratic Republic of Congo for 21 days, Health Minister Chris Baryomunsi said on Sunday, as the country tightened Ebola precautions. Reuters reported the announcement from Kampala, and the Associated Press reported that returnees will spend the 21 days in quarantine at their own expense and that screening has been stepped up at land crossings and Entebbe International Airport.

Source: Reuters via SRN News

Uganda says it is Ebola-free after declaring an end to its latest outbreak in July, Reuters reported. Concern rose after two people who had recently passed through Uganda later tested positive in Kenya and Nigeria. Uganda is investigating the Nigerian case, involving the wife of a Swiss diplomat who visited Uganda last month, and is reviewing genomic sequencing and travel information with Nigerian authorities and international partners, Reuters said.

Source: Associated Press

Swiss authorities had said the woman contracted the virus in Uganda, a claim Baryomunsi pushed back against, saying Switzerland was 'speaking prematurely', Reuters reported. He said relatives of the woman from West Nile had visited her in Kampala and those relatives had visited Congo. Permanent Secretary Diana Atwine said both the Kenyan and Nigerian cases travelled through Entebbe airport on the same day with no physical interaction, citing CCTV review, and that all 60 contacts linked to the Kenyan case had completed 21-day monitoring and been discharged.

The Congo outbreak began in May, while Uganda first set border controls that same month, restricting all but essential travellers subject to screening, AP reported. The Bundibugyo strain behind the current outbreak has no approved vaccine or specific treatment, according to WHO information cited in background reporting. Uganda's move is a precaution, not a declaration of a new domestic outbreak.