Dar Es Salaam , Health authorities bury two killed by Ebola-like illness

Dar es Salaam. Bodies of two people who died recently in the city after suffering an illness likened to Ebola and Dengue, were yesterday interred by health officials under heightened precautions.

The Citizen saw health workers wearing personal protective gear aboard a special vehicle carrying two caskets bearing the bodies of the deceased, headed for burial in the city.

The bodies were being transported from the Muhimbili National Hospital (MNH) to Mwananyamala burial grounds in Konondoni District.

This week, health authorities warned the public of diseases prevalent in Tanzania, which resemble Ebola.

The permanent secretary in the ministry of Health, Community Development, Gender, Children and the Elderly, Dr Mpoki Ulisubisya, mentioned the diseases as Dengue, yellow fever and Rift Valley Fever (RVF).

However, he stressed that other viral infections such as Ebola, Marburg and Zika fever have not been diagnosed in the country.

The warning came after two people—one from Iringa and another from Old Moshi—fell ill and were rushed to MNH with symptoms of high fever and bleeding from body orifices.

The reports come at a time when there is an outbreak of yellow fever in neighbouring Kenya.

Two people died in Nairobi recently and the Kenyan ministry of Health issued an alert over the outbreak of the disease that has recently killed over 60 people in Angola, according to international media reports.

The case of a person who died in Kenya was reported to have entered the country from Angola.

Patients suspected of yellow fever usually have symptoms such as chills, nausea, joint pains and sometimes can bleed from the nose or mouth.

Early this week, Health minister Ummy Mwalimu said blood samples of those who died in Dar es Salaam recently had proved negative for Ebola when tests were conducted locally but there were further efforts to try and confirm with the Kenya Institute for Medical Research in Nairobi.

Until yesterday, the results from Kenya hadn’t been received, according to the head of the pathology unit at Muhimbili National Hospital (MNH), Dr Praxeda Ogweyo.

She noted that there was no other report of a patient who had suffered a similar illness.

The bereaved family members were only given a chance to witness the burial but some of them expressed anger towards the authorities’ order even as the procedure was meant for their own safety.

Relatives of the dead, who had hired a van to go to the burial grounds, expressed mixed feelings when interviewed at the MNH.

“We were only told at the last minute that we can’t bury our sister because she had Ebola-like symptoms.

“We had insisted that we want to take the body back home but the doctors said ‘No’. There is absolutely nothing we can do now,’’ one of the relatives coming from Kilimanjaro, who asked not to be named, told The Citizen.

Aboard the hired bus was a man who hails from Iringa, who said loudly that it was okay to listen to the medical authorities because their decisions were geared at their own safety.

The Citizen