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Liberia restricts movements in bid to halt Ebola spread
Liberia has closed all but 3 land border crossings, restricted public gatherings and quarantined communities heavily affected by the Ebola outbreak in the West African nation.
The country’s president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf described the measures after the first meeting of a new task force she created and is chairing to contain the disease, which has killed 129 people in the country and more than 670 across the region.
A top Liberian doctor working at Liberia’s largest hospital died on Saturday, underscoring the dangers facing those charged with bringing the outbreak – the largest in history and the first in West Africa, under control.
Last week, a Liberian official flew to Nigeria and died of the disease at a Lagos hospital. It prompted a quarantine and subsequent week-long shutdown of the hospital. Staff are currently being monitored to ensure the virus has not spread.
According to the Lagos state health commissioner, Jide Idris, “the private hospital was demobilized, evacuated and the primary source of infection eliminated. The decontamination process in all the affected areas has commenced.”
Authorities are monitoring a total of 59 people who were in contact with the victim, including airport contacts, the Lagos state health ministry said. However, the airline he flew in with has yet to provide a passenger-list for the flights he used.
The fact that the victim, Patrick Sawyer, was able to board an international flight despite being ill raised fears that the disease could spread beyond the 3 countries already affected – Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone.
