East African Community (EAC)

Member states of the East African Community (EAC) are on high alert following the recent outbreak of yellow fever in Uganda where 226 cases were reported and have 53 people died.

“We are on the high alert in all our five member states of East African Community,” Tanzania’s Minister of Health and Social Affairs, Dr. Haji Mponda, told the East African News Agency (EANA) shortly after a one-day sectoral meeting of Health Ministers from EAC Partner States in Arusha on Friday evening .

Dr. Mponda said that whereas the outbreak had already affected Uganda, other EAC states — Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi — were reportedly still safe from the infection.

“Tanzania for example has already dispatched health experts to the regions bordering Uganda in the north — Kagera, Mwanza and Mara — to conduct surveillance and public awareness campaigns in these areas,” the Health boss said.

He added that Tanzania had sufficient stock of yellow fever vaccines but more could be ordered if need arises. He said that the routine vaccinations at the country’s entry points such as airports, harbours and border areas, have been strengthened.

“I call upon the people to report to the health centres immediately if they come across any yellow fever symptoms,” he said, cautioning that ‘’ this is a health problem that nobody should ignore.’’

The yellow fever symptoms include headaches, backache, fever, nausea, higher fever, slow pulse and vomiting of blood. It is caused by a virus transmitted by several species of mosquitoes.

Yellow fever is transmitted by infected mosquitoes, which are mostly active during the day, unlike malaria, which is transmitted by the anopheles mosquito mostly at night.

Control of mosquitoes near cities and live-virus vaccines have made yellow fever preventable.

Kenya’s Ministry of Health had already dispatched health officers to Turkana and Pokot districts, near the border with Uganda’s Kaabong District, one of the affected areas.

Yellow fever was last recorded in Uganda almost 40 years ago, health officials say.

The EAC Health Ministers also considered the report of Permanent Secretaries of the fifth ordinary meeting on regional co-operation on health that was held in Kigali, Rwanda in March last year, and also paid a visit to location of the new offices of the EAC Health Department at Leopard Tours Building along Moshi Road in Arusha, the seat of the EAC Secretariat.