Thursday 7 August 2014
Liberia declares state of emergency over Ebola virus
Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has declared a state of emergency as the country grapples with an outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus.
Speaking on national television, she said some civil liberties might have to be suspended.
The Ebola outbreak has also hit Guinea, Sierra Leone and Nigeria, killing more than 930 people.
World Health Organization (WHO) experts are meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, to discuss a response to the outbreak.
The two-day meeting is expected decide whether to declare a global health emergency.
Ebola, a viral haemorrhagic fever, is one of the deadliest diseases known to humans, with a fatality rate in this outbreak of between 50% and 60%. It is spread through contact with the bodily fluids of Ebola patients showing symptoms.
A WHO statement on Wednesday said 932 patients had died of the disease in West Africa so far, mostly in Liberia, where 282 have died.
Announcing a 90-day state of emergency, President Sirleaf said the government and people of Liberia required "extraordinary measures for the very survival of our state and for the protection of the lives of our people".
She said "ignorance and poverty, as well as entrenched religious and cultural practices, continue to exacerbate the spread of the disease".
Observers say the Ebola crisis in Liberia has got worse because many people are keeping sick relatives at home instead of taking them to isolation centres.
Tarik Jasarevic, from the WHO, said there were safety and ethical issues surrounding experimental Ebola drugs
Amid international concern, US President Barack Obama said the illness "can be controlled and contained very effectively if we use the right protocols".
"The countries affected are the first to admit that what's happened here is the public health systems have been overwhelmed. They weren't able to identify and then isolate cases quickly enough.
"As a consequence, it spread more rapidly than has been typical," he added.
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