MPONDWE, Uganda -- Several well-trodden paths crisscross the lush area where people walk between Congo and Uganda to visit family and friends and go to the busy markets.
The problem is that the pedestrians may unknowingly be carrying the deadly Ebola virus and hindering efforts to control the outbreak in eastern Congo, which has killed more than 1,400 people.
The busy border post is open 12 hours a day, but after dark people walk along the "panyas," or "mouse paths," as the narrow dirt trails are known in the local Kiswahili language.
The footpaths show the close kinship between the two countries, where most people have relatives on both sides of the border. But as Ebola spreads, those footpaths are a source of worry for health workers and authorities trying to prevent any further cross-border contamination.
Eastern Congo has battled the Ebola outbreak since last August. Last week, the disease spread to Uganda, where two people died of the hemorrhagic fever.
"This border is very porous," said James Mwanga, a Ugandan police officer in charge of the Mpondwe border post. "You will not know who has passed if the person went through the unofficial border posts, in most cases. Now there is anxiety and so on. We have heightened our alertness."
The Ebola deaths in Uganda happened after a family of Congolese-Ugandans traveled to Congo to care for a family elder suffering from the disease.
Authorities believe that members of the family, including a 5-year-old boy and his 50-year-old grandmother who have since died of Ebola, took a footpath back into Uganda. In doing so, they may have exposed many Ugandans to the viral disease.
The current outbreak in eastern Congo has become the second-worst on record, after the West Africa epidemic of 2014-16 in which more than 11,000 people died.
The virus can spread quickly via close contact with the bodily fluids of those who are infected, and it can be fatal in up to 90% of cases.
Despite new Ebola vaccines, nonbiological factors have made the outbreak difficult to control.
Eastern Congo is one of the world's most turbulent regions, and rebels have attacked medical centers. Community resistance based on fear and mistrust has also hurt the Ebola-response efforts.
Identifying people who might have been exposed is crucial. The World Health Organization says at least 112 Ebola contacts have been identified in Uganda.
The outbreak is an "extraordinary event" of deep concern but does not yet merit being declared a global emergency, a WHO expert committee said last week.
Declaring an emergency could have "unintended consequences," such as airlines stopping flights or governments closing borders, Preben Aavitsland, the acting chairman of the committee, told reporters.
Congo's Health Ministry said the decision shows that its efforts to control the outbreak are effective. Some Congolese health workers are also opposed to declaring an emergency.
"Imagine if neighboring countries closed their borders because of us," said Gerard Kasereka, a health worker who oversees preventive handwashing in the Congolese town of Butembo. "We would suffer because most of the people in Butembo make their living from commerce and most of our merchandise comes from Uganda, Kenya and Dubai."
Despite the risks of further cross-border contamination, Ugandan health officials insist they are prepared to prevent the disease from spreading. They urge vigilance and advise people to avoid contact such as hugs and handshakes. At multiple border crossings, travelers must wash their hands in chlorinated water and have their temperatures taken before they can proceed.
Uganda has faced several Ebola outbreaks in recent years and has succeeded in bringing them under control, although the area in western Uganda where last week's deaths occurred has never experienced an outbreak. The country's first outbreak, in 2000, infected 425 Ugandans in the country's north and killed more than half of them. And an outbreak in 2007 killed 37 people in Bundibugyo, a remote district close to the Congo border.
Local authorities acknowledge it is difficult to police the border but hope more people will heed safety messages.
As many as 800 Congolese walk into Uganda daily at the Mpondwe border post, according to official figures, but there is no count of how many cross using the footpaths. The numbers swell on market days, when traders arrive with wares such as vegetables and sacks of grain.
"The numbers are overwhelming," said Primrose Natukunda, a branch manager with the Uganda Red Cross who supervises health teams screening travelers. "So it's not easy. It's constant. Every minute, you have to be on alert."
When the border post is closed, the footpaths come alive after dusk, she said.
"At night, that's where people pass," she said. "There is no one to stop them."
Information for this article was contributed by Al-Hadji Kudra Maliro of The Associated Press.
A Section on 06/19/2019