treatment centre in Sierra Leone, hospital staff told Reuters on
Saturday, a further blow to efforts to contain the deadly virus.
Faced with the worst Ebola outbreak in history, West African
governments have struggled to find an effective response. More than
1,550 people have died from the hemorrhagic fever since it was first
detected in the forests of Guinea in March.
Transmitted through the blood, sweat and vomit of the sick, Ebola has
spread quickly among health care workers who often lack the equipment
to protect themselves from the virus.
Ishmael Mehemoh, chief supervisor at the Kenema clinic in eastern
Sierra Leone, said the facility has only one stretcher. He said the
stretcher, which is broken, is used to carry both patients and
corpses, raising the risk of infection.
In a further sign of strained resources, nurses and members of the
burial team at Kenema said the government had stopped paying their
wages of $50 a week.
There is only one other Ebola treatment centre in Sierra Leone in
Kailahun, and the World Health Organization shut the laboratory there
this week and withdrew staff after one of its health workers caught
the virus there.
So far more than 120 health workers have died from the virus across
the region. In Kenema alone, 26 staff members have already died from
Ebola following the death of physician Dr. Sahr Rogers.
"It is with a deep sense of sadness that we have lost one of our
finest physicians in the line of duty at a time like when we need a
lot of them to help in out fight against Ebola," said Sierra Leone's
new health minister Abubakarr Fofana on Saturday.
His predecessor Miatta Kargbo was sacked the previous day over her
handling of the Ebola outbreak.
LIBERIA LIFTS QUARANTINE
In neighbouring Liberia, where infection rates are highest, crowds
sang and danced in the streets of a seaside neighbourhood on Saturday
as the government lifted quarantine measures.
In mid-August, residents of the impoverished seaside district of West
Point in Monrovia were forcibly cut off from the rest of the capital
after a crowd attacked an Ebola centre there, allowing the sick to
flee.
The quarantine sparked protests and security forces responded with
tear gas and bullets, killing a teenaged boy.
But at dawn on Saturday, the community woke up to find the soldiers
and barricades gone.
"I tell God thank you. I tell everyone thank you," said Koffa, a
female resident of West Point. Others danced in the streets chanting
slogans like "we are free" while others rolled about on the asphalt
pavement in celebration.
President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, a U.S.-educated Nobel Peace Prize
winner, has sought to quell criticism of the government's response by
issuing orders threatening officials with dismissal for failing to
report for work or for fleeing the country, and has ordered an
investigation into the West Point shooting.
Liberia plans to build five new Ebola treatment centres each with
capacity for 100 beds, government and health officials said on
Saturday.
Two African doctors infected with Ebola were released from hospital in
Monrovia on Saturday after being treated with the experimental drug
ZMapp, said Rev. John Sumo of the Liberian health ministry.
A third doctor who was given the treatment died this week.
SPREAD TO SENEGAL
Highly contagious, Ebola has also spread to Nigeria and Senegal, which
reported its first confirmed case on Friday, a Guinean student who was
lost to authorities in his own country while under surveillance.
"His brother came from Sierra Leone where he was infected and has
died. Shortly afterwards, this student left for Senegal," said Dr.
Rafi Diallo, spokesman for the Guinean health ministry.
The student's sister and mother have died from Ebola, Guinean health
ministry sources said.
A resident in the suburb of the Senegalese capital Dakar, where the
student resided, said on Saturday that a team of health ministry
officials wearing white protective suits and masks came to spray
disinfectant at his home and a local grocer's shop.
Many Dakar residents worry that the student could have spread the
highly contagious virus in the three weeks since he was last reported
in Guinea.
In Nigeria, where an infected traveller collapsed after arriving the
Lagos airport, there have so far been 19 suspected, probable and
confirmed cases and seven deaths.
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