 earlier this week, the Princess – who is chancellor of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine – called on the international community to unite to overcome the recent outbreak, according to local media. The cases are linked to the Sudan variant of the virus, which has no known vaccine. Prof Pontiano Kaleebu, the director of Uganda Virus Research Institute told local reporters: 'She says we need to work as partners and she says addressing some of these pandemics and outbreaks needs partnership, people coming with the different skills". On Thursday the UK Health and Security Agency updated guidance under Britain's returning workers scheme. This asks all organisations with staff in affected areas to fill out eight pages of forms prior to their return to the UK, including details of their next of kin and local GP. Kampala, home to three million, is divided between informal settlements and slums where the disease could spread easily and luscious estates and gated communities, but there currently seems to be a profound sense of apathy. The MP for Rubaga Division North, where the six children were infected, told The Telegraph he was sceptical about the news. 'For me, this whole fracas of Ebola is just a game. I don't know what the government is up to. I've heard rumours of a possible lockdown. We all know what that meant for Ugandans and the economy collapsed. People are just trying to revive their business,' said Kawalya Abubaker. 'We wouldn't want to go back into a lockdown just because of a disease… people have no food to eat; people will die,' he added.){kind=link}
The Princess Royal will plough on with her visit to Uganda, despite calls for a lockdown in Kampala
The Princess Royal will remain in Uganda, despite calls for a lockdown in the capital Kampala after three schools were hit by Ebola in a nightmarish escalation of the outbreak.
The Ugandan authorities are trying to track down more than 170 contacts of a family of six children who have contracted the disease, according to Health Minister Jane Ruth Aceng.
In total, it is thought authorities are racing to find at least 300 close contacts of confirmed Ebola cases in the sprawling capital, and calls are mounting for more stringent restrictions to curb the outbreak.
“The earlier we lockdown Kampala, the better,” said Dr Samuel Oledo, President of the Ugandan Medical Association. “Ugandans are still taking it as something so minor. It is catastrophic that right now, people are not even reporting cases.”