New-old the disease that frightened tourism even before covid – Ebola fever, can literally “bury” tourism in one country. We are talking about Uganda – after the announcement of an outbreak of Ebola in its Sudanese “subspecies”, for which there is no vaccine – tourists massively refuse to go to this country.
It got to the point where Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni personally urged foreign tourists not to cancel their plans, insisting the disease was under control. However, the situation can really scare away the tourist: cases have been recorded since September 20, from the central district of Mubende, cases of the disease have spread throughout the country, including to the capital Kampala. At the moment, 55 deaths have been officially registered throughout the country.
However, the president has refused to “lock down” the country, and what's more, Mr. Museveni has said the Ebola outbreak is limited to six of Uganda's 146 districts. “I have been informed that some tourists have canceled their visits to Uganda, postponed hotel bookings and some international conferences have also been cancelled. I would like to assure tourists, the international community, conference organizers that the Ugandan government has taken action to combat the Ebola outbreak,” he said.
Quarantine has so far been declared only in the province of Mubende and neighboring Kassande, the two central regions that have become the focus of the outbreak. The measures include a dusk to dawn curfew, a ban on personal travel and the closure of markets, bars and churches.
Our reference: the fright of tourists is all the more understandable, since, according to official WHO information, the disease caused by the Ebola virus is a serious, often fatal disease of people. According to the World Health Organization, on average 50% of people who contract Ebola die. In this case, the virus is transmitted to people from wild animals and spreads among people from person to person. Ebola virus hosts are fruit bats of the Pteropodidae family. A person can become infected, firstly, directly from an animal “as a result of close contact with the blood, secretions, organs or other body fluids of infected animals” – and this can be both mice and monkeys, antelopes and other fauna. Second, according to WHO, “Ebola is spread by human-to-human transmission through close contact (through broken skin or mucous membranes) with the blood, secretions, organs or other bodily fluids of infected people, and with surfaces and materials (e.g. , bedding, clothing) contaminated with such fluids.” At the same time, the strain circulating in Uganda is known as the Sudanese Ebola virus, for which there is currently no vaccine.
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