Liberia Shuts Schools, Quarantines Communities In Bid To Halt Ebola

Liberia announced on Wednesday the quarantine of a number of
communities and the closure of schools across the country, the
toughest measures yet imposed by a West African government in a bid to
halt the worst Ebola outbreak on record.

Security forces in Liberia were ordered to enforce the measures, part
of an action plan that included placing all non-essential government
workers on 30-day compulsory leave.

As of July 23, 672 deaths have been blamed on Ebola in Liberia,
neighboring Guinea and Sierra Leone, according to World Health
Organisation figures. Liberia accounted for just under one-fifth of
those deaths.

"This is a major public health emergency. It is fierce, deadly and
many of our countrymen are dying and we need to act to stop the
spread," Lewis Brown, Liberia's information minister, told Reuters.

"We need the support of the international community now more than
ever. We desperately need all the help we can get."

Referring to the orders issued to the security forces to impose the
plan, he added: "We are hoping there will be a level of understanding
and that there will not be a need for exceptional force."

Earlier on Wednesday, Liberian health officials said that an isolation
unit for Ebola victims in Liberia's capital, Monrovia, was overrun
with cases and health workers are being forced to treat up to 20 new
patients in their homes.

Protests by the local community against the construction of a new
isolation unit at Elwa Hospital have ended, said Tolbert Nyenswah, an
assistant Minister of Health, but patients with Ebola symptoms will
have to wait at home until work is finished.

"The staff here are overwhelmed. This is a humanitarian crisis in
Liberia," Nyenswah told Reuters by telephone. "People are being given
care at their homes until we can move them to the new unit."

Nyenswah said that the suspected patients were being treated by
trained medical staff with full protective gear, but it would take at
least 24-36 hours to build the new unit.

Initial resistance to building a new isolation unit highlighted the
fear and mistrust health workers have faced across West Africa as they
battle the outbreak, which has strained the region's weak health
systems.

Dozens of local health workers have died treating patients and two
Americans working for Samaritan's Purse,a U.S. charity operating in
Liberia, were infected over the past week.

Samaritans Purse said on Wednesday that Kent Brantly, a doctor working
for Samaritan's Purse, and Nancy Writebol, a colleague who was also
volunteering in Liberia, had shown a slight improvement but were still
in serious condition.

The organization said that it was withdrawing non-essential staff from
the country because of instability and security issues.