Seoul: South Korea will enhance quarantine protocols for travelers arriving from seven African countries in an effort to prevent the spread of the Ebola virus, health authorities announced. The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) stated that passengers from Uganda, South Sudan, Rwanda, Kenya, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania, and Ethiopia will be subject to these measures.
According to Yonhap News Agency, the KDCA has stipulated that incoming travelers from these nations must report any abnormal bodily symptoms, such as fever and rash, to quarantine officers upon their arrival in South Korea. This decision follows the recent report of Uganda's first Ebola-related death in two years.
The Ebola virus is known to cause severe inflammation and hemorrhagic fever in humans, and currently, there is no widely adopted vaccine for it. KDCA Commissioner Jee Young-mee emphasized that while the virus does not spread rapidly in other countries due to its transmission through direct contact with the body fluids or tissues of an infected person, the agency is taking steps to minimize the risk of it spreading within South Korea.