Sierra Leone Declares Emergency to Combat Ebola . Medical staff working with Medecins sans Frontieres (MSF) prepare to bring food to patients kept in an isolation area at the MSF Ebola treatment centre in Kailahun, Sierra Leone, July 20, 2014. Sierra Leones President Ernest Bai Koroma declared a state of emergency to help the country deal with the worst ever outbreak of the Ebola virus. In a national address, Koroma said the government is quarantining areas where the disease is found, restricting public meetings, searching houses to identify infected people and updating procedures for passengers at the countrys main airport. The measures will be in place for 60 to 90 days. Koroma said Sierra Leone is in a great fight, and that Ebola is beyond what any one country or community can defeat. The president announced he will go Friday to Guinea to meet with his Guinean and Liberian counterparts. Those three countries have been at the center of the outbreak, which the World Health Organization said has killed nearly 700 people since the outbreak began in February. Koroma canceled a trip next week to Washington, where President Barack Obama is hosting a summit of African leaders. Liberia announced its own measures Wednesday to try to combat the outbreak, including closing schools across the country and placing non-essential government workers on mandatory leave for 30 days. Meanwhile, two U.S. Peace Corps volunteers in Liberia have been isolated after potential exposure to Ebola. A spokeswoman confirmed Wednesday the two “had contact with an individual who later died of the Ebola virus. The Peace Corps is temporarily removing all of its volunteers from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea as a precautionary measure. There is no vaccine or cure for Ebola, which is characterized by fever, vomiting, diarrhea, body aches, and unstoppable bleeding from areas such as the eyes, ears and nose.
Posted on: Thu, 31 Jul 2014 12:14:44 +0000