Uganda medics get Ebola vaccinations

KAMPALA, Uganda — Uganda has started vaccinating health workers against Ebola in a border district near the outbreak in Congo, where the highly infectious viral disease has killed 189 people.

The inoculations, using an experimental vaccine, began Wednesday and are part of a wider Ebola prevention plan in a country that has faced multiple Ebola outbreaks since 2000.

In recent months Ebola cases have been confirmed near the heavily traveled border between Uganda and Congo, where 270 cases have been reported in the country’s northeast since August.

The vaccinations are crucial to stemming transmission “in a highly endemic belt for hemorrhagic fevers,” said Anthony Mbonye, a professor of health sciences at Uganda’s Makerere University.

Twice-weekly market days — during which some 10,000 Congolese cross into Uganda — have put Uganda at high risk, according to health officials. They say unofficial border crossings also are a cause for concern.