The World Health Organization (WHO) has accused Tanzania of failing to provide detailed information on suspected Ebola cases.
In a statement released on Saturday, the UN health agency said Tanzania has not communicated to WHO despite several requests for “clinical data, results of the investigations, possible contacts and potential laboratory tests performed”.
“The limited available official information from Tanzanian authorities represents a challenge,” WHO said.
Tanzanian authorities have not yet responded to the WHO statement.
In a statement on September 18, WHO said it was formally informed by the Tanzania on September 14, that it had no cases of Ebola.
“This followed earlier rumours of the death of one person and illness in a few others,” WHO said in that statement. “Tanzanian authorities did not indicate what the cause of the illnesses might have been.
According to Al Jazeera, concern focused on a woman who died on September 8 in Dar es Salaam, after showing symptoms common to several diseases, including Ebola.
Also on September 14, Tanzania’s Health Minister Ummy Mwalimu said the government had investigated two recent cases of unknown illnesses, but they were not Ebola.
“The two patients did not have Ebola,” Mwalimu told reporters. “There is no Ebola outbreak in Tanzania as we speak, people should not panic.”
There is increased vigilance in the Eastern African region after a 13-month outbreak of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has killed more than 2,000 people.
The outbreak, which was officially declared in August 2018, is the second deadliest on record behind the 2013-2016 epidemic in West Africa that killed more than 11,300 people.
