South Sudan on High Alert After Ebola Outbreak in Uganda

On Thursday, the South Sudanese government said it is stepping up vigilance along its borders following an outbreak of the Ebola-Sudan strain in neighboring Uganda.

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Victoria Anib Majur, the undersecretary in the Ministry of Health, advised communities living along the border with Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to report any suspicious case of Ebola to health authorities.

"We are very concerned about the Ebola outbreak in Uganda because we share the border. We have a lot of movement across the border, our families are in Uganda and Ugandans are on this side," Majur told journalists in Juba, the capital of South Sudan.

She also urged the public to refrain from eating bushmeat since Ebola spreads to humans through animals. Majur disclosed that national assessment teams will be deployed in the border areas of Yambio and Nimule bordering both DRC and Uganda, respectively.

On Aug. 21, the DRC government announced an Ebola outbreak after detecting a 46-year-old woman living in the city of Beni, in the province of North Kivu. Majur added that they would be partnering with the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) to promote public awareness of the Ebola virus disease.

Fabian Ndenzako, the acting WHO Representative for South Sudan, said that the ministry of health has already activated the incident management system for Ebola virus disease.

"There is a lot of movement across the border, so it's really important that this incident management system is really activated. We don't have a case in South Sudan but given the proximity and closeness, we have to prepare," Ndenzako said.