East Africa to tighten border screening as Ebola outbreak persists

The East African Community has unveiled a coordinated regional strategy to contain the spread of Ebola outbreak, including harmonized border screening measures and a new technical taskforce, as the outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda continues to pose a cross-border public health threat across East Africa.

The measures were adopted during the 8th Extraordinary Meeting of the EAC Sectoral Council of Ministers of Health held this week.

The ministers agreed to harmonize Ebola surveillance and protective measures at airports, ports and land border crossings across the region and directed partner states to strengthen monitoring at points of entry and porous borders in line with national regulations and World Health Organization guidelines.

To improve regional coordination, the ministers also agreed to establish an EAC Regional Technical Taskforce on Ebola Response and other high-consequence diseases. The taskforce will comprise experts nominated by partner states and the EAC Secretariat and will be responsible for monitoring the outbreak, coordinating technical interventions, reviewing epidemiological trends and providing regular updates to policymakers.

"The ongoing outbreak underscores the need for collective action to prevent further cross-border transmission within the region," the ministers said in a communique issued after the meeting.

The ministers emphasized the importance of real-time sharing of epidemiological information among partner states, saying such cooperation would facilitate early detection of cases and support a coordinated regional response.

"The EAC Ministers of Health reaffirmed their commitment to regional solidarity and collective action in addressing the Ebola outbreak and protecting the health and wellbeing of East African citizens," the statement said.

To strengthen surveillance and diagnostic capacity, partner states were directed to facilitate the deployment of EAC mobile laboratories and technical experts to strategic locations, including border points and identified hotspots. The ministers also called for additional resources to support surveillance, laboratory testing, community engagement and emergency response activities.

The meeting came as World Health Organization warned that the outbreak remains a significant regional threat despite improvements in testing and case detection.

Speaking after a visit to the outbreak's epicenter in eastern DRC, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Wednesday that the outbreak had "a big head start" and that response teams were still working to catch up.

"What I saw gave me hope, although challenges remain," he said.

He said contact tracing remains a major challenge, with only about 45 percent of identified contacts being effectively followed up. He cited insecurity, population displacement and high mobility in affected areas as factors complicating response efforts.