UNMISS distributes Ebola awareness posters to South Sudanese communities bordering the DR Congo | Credit | James Sokiri/UNMISS

The director general at the Ministry of Health has accused some senior government officials of continuously violating the Ebola screening exercise at Juba International Airport.

At the launch of the Ebola Preparedness Plan in June this year, health partners said they observed that those who consider themselves important avoid the Ebola desk.

They said some VIPs, including ministers, hop into their vehicles which normally wait for them on the runway.

The violation, according to Dr. Richard Lako, Ebola Incidence Manager at the health ministry, has not stopped.

Dr. Lako stressed that some VIPs on arrive at Juba International Airport ignore to Ebola screening desk, saying they are in a hurry.

“That has been a challenge and continues to be a challenge,” he told Eye Radio.

“We have some VIPs that actually sometimes feel like they are above the law because they are picked up from the runway or sometimes when the screening team goes to them, they say ‘we are in hurry’.”

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During the UN Security Council visit to Juba last month, Eye Radio observed that the delegates used fist-bump to greet both UN and government officials who received them at the airport.

Ebola virus disease, also known as Ebola hemorrhagic fever or simply Ebola, is a viral hemorrhagic fever of humans and other primates caused by Ebola viruses.

Humans may spread the virus to other humans through contact with bodily fluids such as blood.

The neighboring DR Congo declared an Ebola epidemic in August 2018 in the conflict-wracked eastern provinces of North Kivu, South Kivu and Ituri, bordering Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi.

The highly contagious hemorrhagic fever has so far killed 2,185 people, according to the latest official figures.