Acre state pleads for help against entry of Ebola in Brazil

The state government of Acre has urged federal authorities to tighten up on the health inspection of immigrants on the state's national borders. The call was issued following the first case of Ebola reported in Senegal and the increasing number of citizens from this country crossing the Brazil-Peru frontier over the last weeks.

The government of Acre wants the Health Ministry to send over experts capable of offering support to health agents on the national borders. The request was submitted on Friday (Aug 29) to Ideli Salvatti, the minister of the Secretariat for Human Rights of the Presidency of the Republic. On the same day, in Senegal, the first case of the disease was reported. The victim was a 21-year-old university student, who was hospitalized in Dakar, the country's capital city.

Officials from the federal government are expected to meet this week in a bid to analyze the need for measures to ensure the security of both the population and health agents working on the frontier.

On Friday (29), in Acre's state capital Rio Branco, Minister Salvatti paid a visit to a shelter where at least 20 Senegalese citizens were found among over 100 immigrants, most of whom from Haiti and African countries, awaiting to have an official permit to stay in Brazil and work.

Early in August, the Secretariat for Social Work stated that the chances of someone infected with the Ebola virus  entering the country are not very high given the conditions to which immigrants are subject when crossing the Brazilian frontier by land in search of a work opportunity.

Acre is part of Brazil's Amazon Rainforest region. In its southwest area, Brazil shares national borders with Bolivia and Peru. After the earthquake in 2010, thousands of Haitians used this route to gain entry to Brazil. The  strategy has also been adopted by African immigrants interested in coming to the country.

Translated by Fabrício Ferreira