EAC PREPARES A MEETING TO ADDRESS EBOLA VIRUS THREAT

 The East African Community (EAC) is preparing a meeting to address the emerging global threat of Ebola virus, the EAC deputy secretary general (Planning and Investments), Dr Enos Bukuku, said yesterday.

The deadly communicable disease with a fatality rate of up to 90 per cent has so far reportedly claimed 1,000-plus lives in West African countries.

Dr Bukuku told the visiting Zanzibar President, Dr Ali Mohammed Shein, that the extraordinary meeting would involve officials from ministries of Health and Social Welfare as well as Transport and Aviation from across the EAC partner states.

Dr Shein was in Arusha yesterday morning to open the 12th Scientific Congress of the Association of Pathologists of East, Central and Southern Africa which the EAC is hosting at its headquarters.

Dr Bukuku said Article 118 of the Treaty establishing the EAC provided for cooperation in health, social and cultural activities in the region.

He said EAC partner states, as a result, cooperated in taking joint action towards management, prevention and control of communicable diseases, development of a common drug policy, and harmonisation of drug procedures in a bid to achieve good control of pharmaceutical standards.

He added that the bloc was also cooperating in the harmonisation of health policies and regulations, the exchange of information on health issues, and in the cooperation and promotion of research.

“Laboratories are workplaces of pathologists and scientists; it is as a kitchen is to a hotel or food industry, for without a laboratory there is no correct treatment and the result is either death or continuous suffering,” Dr Bukuku said.

Meanwhile, SD Africa Limited donated Sh30 million worth of 360 Hepatitis B and C kits to Tanzania Mainland and Zanzibar governments during the conference.

Dr Shein received the kits on behalf of both governments shortly before officiating at the congress.

The gadgets, according to the Health and Social welfare minister, Dr Seif Rashid, are essential in the testing of increasing cases of cancer in the country.

The SD Africa Standard Diagnostic Africa representative, Mr Phillip Sawe, said the rapid test kits manufactured in South Korea were effective in high risk areas such as Tanzania. 

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POLICE NET ARUSHA MOST WANTED BOMBING SUSPECTS

POLI CE in Arusha  yesterday named a “most wanted” suspect said to be behind a wave of terrorist attacks in Arusha and Zanzibar.

ARUSHA REGIONAL POLICE COMMANDER L.SABAS

Arusha Regional Police Commander Liberatus Sabas said thorough investigations had established that Mr Yahya Hassan Hella, alias Sensei, was the mastermind behind the terror network responsible for several deadly attacks.

“We have established that he is not only behind the grenade and acid attacks in Arusha,  but is the chief coordinator of this terror network,” he said, adding that the suspect hailed from Kondoa District in Dodoma Region.

Mr Sabas named the suspect as two people appeared in court in Dar es Salaam on terrorism charges.

He said police were also looking for Mr Hella’s accomplices, adding that some of them could have fled the country.

“We have the names of key suspects who have fled Arusha and gone into hiding in other parts of Tanzania and outside the country,” Mr Sabas said.

Nineteen more suspects have been arrested in recent days, taking the number of those in custody to more than two dozen.

Mr Sabas said more people were due to appear in court in Arusha today in connection with attacks which have rocked the northern city in recent months.

Police sources said those arrested in recent days include suspects linked with the grenade attack at a Chadema campaign rally in Arusha on June 15, last year.  The blast killed four people.

The opposition party said it had a video implicating police in the incident.  The Police Force has strongly denied involvement in the attack at Soweto grounds.

Sources also said the suspects in custody included 12 people who were allegedly involved in the  May 5, 2013 grenade attack at a church in Olasiti, Arusha.

 Three people were killed and 60 others wounded when the grenade was hurled into the congregation as the Vatican envoy to Tanzania, Francisco Padilla, was about to grace the official inauguration of the church building.

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