KAMPALA, Uganda (UGNEWSLINE) — The Ministry of Health is seeking the establishment of instant courts to prosecute travellers who violate public health guidelines as Uganda tightens measures to prevent the importation of Ebola.
The ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Dr Diana Atwine, said the government would engage the Chief Justice to establish the courts to handle cases involving travellers who knowingly conceal Ebola symptoms and expose the public to infection.
“We are going to invoke the Public Health Act,” Atwine said on Wednesday while receiving thermal scanners from the International Organization for Migration (IOM) at the ministry headquarters in Kampala.
“Anybody coming from the DRC and you have symptoms, and you are exposing the lives of the entire population of Uganda to diseases, when you know that you are coming from Ebola, and you are coming from an epicentre, and you are coming intentionally to hide and to use Uganda, we are going to write to the Chief Justice. We are going to have instant courts,” she said.
