A Tanzanian government senior official said on Tuesday, August 21, 2018 that Tanzania was on high risk of Ebola outbreak.

The Ebola Virus Disease killed 50 out of 91 patients in neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Ummy Mwalimu, the east African nation’s Minister for Health, said the high-risk categorization followed the World Health Organisation (WHO)’s new statistics showing that the new outbreaks in the DRC have occurred in regions closest to Tanzania than previous cases, including North Kivu and Ituri.

“Analysis by WHO has shown that countries neighboring the DRC including Tanzania are now at high risk of outbreak because North Kivu shares a common border with Uganda and there are many visitors and refugees fleeing from the region to Uganda and Rwanda,” she told a news conference in the commercial capital Dar es Salaam.

Mwalimu said both North Kivu and Ituri provinces are hotspots for the humanitarian crisis in the DRC due to civilian unrest which has complicated efforts by local DRC authorities and the international community to contain the spread of the viral disease.

The new cases, the 10th in the DRC’s Ebola outbreaks, have been reported in health zones in North Kivu and Ituri provinces, coming just one week after the neighbouring country declared victory against an earlier outbreak that occurred in May.

“As of Aug. 1, WHO figures showed that there were only 26 confirmed new cases and 10 deaths that accounted for a fatality rate of 38.5 per cent but the spread of the disease persisted and by Aug. 18, there were 91 cases and 50 deaths which are equal to 54.9 percent fatality rate,” said the minister.

Along with the WHO figures, the minister said a total of 10 health workers in the DRC have also contracted Ebola and one of them died.

She added: “And there is cause for alarm because the workers caught the virus in normal health centers and not the designated Ebola treatment centers.”

So far, the minister said there was no Ebola case in Tanzania but noted that there was need to put in place control measures to ensure that the virus does not wreak havoc in the country as it has in the DRC.

“I call upon all citizens and residents of Tanzanian including health workers to understand and adhere to Ebola infection prevention and control measures,” she said.

Authorities are on high alert in the regions with high interaction with DRC, including Mwanza, Kagera, Kigoma, Katavi, Rukwa and Songwe to ensure that all visitors from the neighbouring country were properly screened, said Mwalimu.

She added that that the country’s international airports, including Julius Nyerere, Kilimajaro and Songwe were on full alert.

Mwalimu added that her ministry will be working with WHO round the clock to put in place Ebola surveillance and control mechanism.

Operational readiness assessment has already been conducted in Rukwa, Katavi, Songwe, Mbeya, Kigoma, Kagera, Arusha and Kilimanjaro regions, said Mwalimu.

She said the ministry has employed 33 additional staff in the Ebola control team and WHO has provided the ministry with $2.5 million worth of equipment that has already been distributed to key centers, including personal protective equipment for health workers.

Quitting smoking may cause you to gain weight and initially lead to a higher risk of diabetes, but it will reduce the chances of death from cardiovascular disease and other causes, according to a new study.

Researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Harvard University found that those whose weight increased more than 15 kg after quitting smoking had a higher risk of type II diabetes than smokers.

The risk peaked five to seven years after quitting and then gradually decreased.

Those who did not gain weight after quitting did not experience an increase in the risk of diabetes.

However, regardless of weight change, cardiovascular mortality and all-cause mortality of former smokers declined rapidly after they gave up smoking and remained at about 70 per cent that of smokers’ mortality.

Previous studies have shown that tobacco products can cause cancer, lung diseases and cardiovascular diseases, and reduce life expectancy.

Although the risk of these diseases can be reduced by quitting, weight gain has been a common health problem.

Many former smokers can gain over 10kg and the weight gain can last around six years.

The main reason is that tobacco can effectively suppress people’s appetites.

Once their appetite returns to normal after quitting, people can eat more and put on weight more easily.

The new study, released by the New England Journal of Medicine, involved nearly 300,000 Americans who had quit smoking for more than two years.

They were followed up every two years, to collect data including their smoking status, weight changes and disease incidence.

Researchers also found that more physical activity and an improved diet could help former smokers lose weight.

It is better to quit smoking first, and then try to control weight gain and monitor the risk of diseases, said Zong Geng, lead researcher of the study.

Authorities in troubled eastern Congo are battling against multiple militia groups and a deteriorating security situation in their efforts to respond to an Ebola outbreak that has killed 55 people in the region.

The outbreak of the deadly virus began shortly after the country’s government in June declared an end to another outbreak – in the west of the country – and lauded those involved for managing to swiftly contain the spread of the disease.

But access to Congo’s eastern “red zone” is more difficult due to the region’s ongoing conflict.

There is also the added problem of the movement of internally displaced people in North Kivu province, and their possible cross-border travel into Uganda or Rwanda.

The World Health Organisation has warned that some areas are inaccessible because of the more than 100 armed groups that are mainly fighting over access to mineral resources.

The government has rolled out a vaccination campaign that has so far managed to treat more than 1,200 people.

However, the number of cases has almost doubled in a week, with the Ministry of Health saying late Monday that 96 people were suspected or confirmed to have contracted the disease.

“In red zones that are more difficult to access … we are working with the local registered nurses who are tracking these people and sending reports by phone every day,” Jessica Ilunga, spokesperson at the Ministry of Health, told dpa on Tuesday, August 21, 2018.

Health Minister Oly Ilunga Kalenga said during a visit to the region Monday that medical teams were being provided with security and patients were being treated in safe spaces.

“The response to the Ebola outbreak is not easy because the disease has been declared in a red zone,” he said.

“Health personnel and materials are accompanied by an escort when travelling.”

To try and contain the virus authorities are manning the entrances to the town of Goma, border posts and the busy port, and are taking the temperatures of those arriving from elsewhere in North Kivu.

Basins and soap have been placed at all these points as well as at churches so that people can wash their hands.

The government has also relaxed rules about motorcycle commuters wearing helmets in order to avoid the spread of infection.

Motorcycle-taxis are a popular form of transport in Congo, and motorcycle-taxi driver Hakim Balole told dpa he thought it was a good idea for passengers not to share helmets.

“The disease can easily be transmitted by sweat,” he said.

Ebola, which can also spread through blood, vomit and other bodily fluids, is a highly infectious disease that causes a fever and often leads to massive internal bleeding and death.