There is a general Ebola alertness at the Kampala Serena Hotel, where the  2019/2020 financial year budget reading is taking place.

All members who made their way to attend the function were made to wash hands with disinfectant following the Ebola outbreak in the Western part of the country (Kasese)early this week.

On Tuesday this week, the Health Ministry pronounced the first Ebola case in the country of a 5-year old boy who is said to have entered Uganda from the Bwera border crossing located in Kasese District from the Democratic Republic of Congo-DRC on June 9, 2019, in the company of his mother. The two had traveled to the DRC last week to attend the burial of a relative.

On their journey back, they came with four other relatives, two of whom presented symptoms of Ebola, a severe illness that is spread through contact with the body fluids of a person sick with the disease.

According to the World Health Organization, the family sought treatment at Kagando Hospital where Health workers identified Ebola as a possible cause of illness. The Child was later transferred to Bwera Ebola Treatment Unit for Management, while awaiting results of medical tests from the Uganda Virus Research Institute.

The child passed on after one day and also the grandmother died yesterday evening.

Amid tension of the outbreak, Health Ministry officials today camped at the Kampala Serena Hotel ahead of the budget reading by Finance Minister, Matia Kasaija and strictly required every person accessing the premises to wash their hands.

Our reporter at the venue observed ushers notifying the guests about the Ebola outbreak and a need to keep safe by submitting to the process at the venue.

Some of the key dignitaries who we observed washing hands included Commissioner of Prisons, Johnson Byabashaija, Foreign Affairs Minister Sam Kutesa, Minister without Portfolio, Alhajj Abdul Nadduli, Mufti Of Uganda, Sheikh Shaban Ramadhan Mubaje, Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) Commissioner General Doris Akol, Members of Parliament and others.

The devastating news of Ebola in Uganda comes close to ten months’ after an outbreak of the deadly viral disease was declared in the Democratic Republic of Congo in August last year.  As of June 4, 2019, a total of 2025 Ebola cases had been recorded, they include 1931 confirmed and 94 probable cases. A total of 1357 deaths were reported, a case fatality ratio of 67 per cent.