Ugandan health workers

By Jude Igbanoi
Organising Committee of the International Bar Association’s African Regional Conference starting in Kampala, Uganda tomorrow has assured delegates to the conference that they are safe from the Ebola virus during the conference.

A statement last Thursday by the Senior Vice-Chair of the African Regional Forum, Mr. Barnabas Tumusingize, said ‘You may have heard media reports of an outbreak of Ebola in Uganda in the last week.

‘The organising committee for the IBA-ARF wants to reassure delegates that the Ebola cases have all been in a village in the Kibaale District in Western Uganda in a place called Kagadi which is about 150 miles from the capital city.

‘Although the media has reported a case in Kampala, this case was in fact of a healthcare worker who was transported to Mulago, the nation’s largest public hospital in Kampala from the clinic in Western Uganda where she had treated one of the victims.

‘The infection did not occur in Kampala and there is no evidence that the victim came into contact with any members of the public. 
‘Indeed, the WHO has not deemed it fit to issue a travel warning which would have been the case if the situation was dire’ he pointed out.

At the time of the release, an International Scientific Conference was said to taking place in Kampala with delegates from all over the world, which Conference had not been hampered by the Ebola outbreak.

As at press time, there were no travel restrictions in effect for Uganda from any of the diplomatic missions due to the reported outbreak. 

The conference which holds at the Munyonyo Commonwealth Resort, Kampala, Uganda will be from tomorrow, August 9 to 10, 2012.
Over 350 delegates had registered for the conference as at last Friday.

Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Raji Fashola SAN, is scheduled to deliver the Keynote Speech at the conference, but as at press time it was not clear whether he would still attend.