West Africa Governments Step Up Response to Ebola Epidemic..”deployed the army on Thursday”
By Drew Hinshaw
WSJ.com
July 31, 2014
LAGOS, Nigeria—Sierra Leone joined Liberia on Thursday in launching far-reaching measures to contain an outbreak of the Ebola virus that has killed at least 672 people across West Africa, in a sign that governments are starting to speed up their response to the epidemic.
Ernest Bai Koroma, the president of Sierra Leone, deployed the army on Thursday to quarantine Ebola-stricken neighborhoods and banned for at least 60 days public meetings except for those dedicated to education about the virus.
Mr. Koroma also canceled overseas trips for top officials, including his visit to Washington next week for a three-day summit of some 50 leaders of African countries to be hosted by U.S. President Barack Obama.
“Extraordinary challenges require extraordinary measures,” Mr. Koroma said in a televised address. “The disease is beyond the scope of any one country or community to defeat.”
The sweeping measures introduced by the Sierra Leonean leader came less than a day after the Liberian government said it was closing most border crossings, banning public gatherings and considering the quarantining of some neighborhoods to stop the spread of the disease.
In another sign of the spreading danger, Nigerian officials on Thursday said they had identified 14 hospital workers at “high risk” of contracting Ebola after they helped treat a visiting Liberian official who died of the disease last week in Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital.
“These are people who have had close contact with the victim,” said Abdulsalami Nasidi, director of Nigeria’s Center for Disease Control.
The current Ebola outbreak, which began in Guinea in February, is believed to be the worst ever. As of Sunday, 729 people had died from the virus in Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone, the World Health Organization said Thursday. Another 1,323 people are confirmed or suspected of having contracted the disease, it said.
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