Buried in public cemetery
The deceased Tanzanian National medic who died from the Ebola Virus Disease EVD at a hospital in Fort portal City has been buried in Uganda.
The deceased Dr Mohammed Ali succumbed to the deadly disease on Saturday morning and was laid to rest on Sunday at public cemetery in Bukwali Central Division, Fort Portal town.
His body was wrapped in body bags and kept at the hospital mortuary where it was picked from to the cemetery for burial. The body was transported in a double cabin pickup to the burial grounds. Two members on the burial team followed the ones that were carrying the body, fumigating everywhere they passed.
A team of seven members on the Ebola task force supported by medical members on the task force team clad in the personal protective gear with coveralls, gloves, gumboots, googles, aprons and N95 masks carried the body.
A burial ceremony was presided over by Adulai Baguma, the imam of Bukwali Mosque and attended to by colleagues to the deceased and Tanzanian students at Kampala International University.
However, those present at the burial were kept about 500 meters from the grave as they were not dressed in the protective gear.
Angalia Godwin Kasigwa, the Resident City Commissioner – Fort Portal City explains that the deceased was buried in a public cemetery following a joint resolution between Uganda and Tanzania to avoid further spread of the disease.
Buried in public cemetery
He says they consulted the Tanzanian government on his burial and it was agreed that due to safety and precautionary measures taken while handling such epidemics, he should be buried where he died from.
”The two governments agreed that we bury him here in Fort portal. We have a public cemetery. So, our team and A-plus funeral services buried him there,” he said
Dr Ali is one of the six medical doctors who recently contracted the deadly disease and was admitted at at Fort Portal Regional Referral Hospital. He was pursuing a Master of Medicine in Surgery at Kampala International University at the time of his demise.
The deceased and his colleagues were infected while treating Ebola patients at Mubende Regional Referral Hospital but later transferred to Fort portal for specialized treatment.
