Rwanda has adequate equipment to deal with the deadly Ebola virus in the event of an outbreak, the Minister of Health said yesterday.

One case of the disease has been reported in neighbouring Uganda.

"We have prepared ourselves; we had a meeting today (Monday) where we discussed how to handle this problem. We have internationally approved materials that will enable us to handle the situation,” Dr Agnes Binagwaho said.

 "We have an emergency team of experts and what I can say is that there is no need to panic; its only one case that was discovered in Uganda and I am sure they are handling it effectively.”

Yesterday, the Ugandan government ordered all border points to be vigilant fearing that the killer disease could be spread to other neighbouring countries.

"We have already alerted the people at the border points to put in place safety measures and to report any suspected cases to the nearest health facility,” Dr Anthony Mbonye, the head of the Ebola task force, in Uganda’s Ministry of Health said yesterday.

Ebola is a highly contagious disease with a high fatality rate. It is characterised by fever, bleeding through body openings, vomiting, diarrhoea, abdominal pain, headache, rash and red eyes.

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