CONAKRY: Guinea has dec-lared a public health emergency over an Ebola epidemic that has killed more than 1,000 people in three West African states and is sending health workers to all affected border points.
An estimated 377 people have died in Guinea since the world’s worst outbreak of Ebola began in March in remote parts of a border region next to Sierra Leone and Liberia. Guinea says its outbreak is under control with the numbers of new cases falling, but that the new measures are needed to prevent further infection from the other countries at the centre of the epidemic.
“Trucks full of health materials and carrying health personnel are going to all the border points with Liberia and Sierra Leone,” Aboubacar Sidiki Diakité, president of Guinea’s Ebola commission, said late on Wednesday.
As many as 3,000 people are waiting at 17 border points for a green light to enter the country, he said.
“Any who are sick will be immediately isolated. People will be followed up on. We can’t take the risk of letting everyone through without checks,” he said.
Sierra Leone has declared Ebola a national emergency as has Liberia, which was hoping that two of its doctors diagnosed with Ebola could start treatment yesterday with some of the limited supply of experimental drug ZMapp.
Nigeria, which has also declared a national emergency, yesterday said it had 11 cases of Ebola after a doctor who treated a Liberian man who brought the disease to Lagos fell ill.
REUTERS
