The worst recorded Ebola
outbreak in history surpassed 700 deaths in
West Africa as the World Health Organization on
Thursday announced dozens of new fatalities.
In Sierra Leone, President Ernest Bai Koroma
vowed to quarantine sick patients at home and
have authorities conduct house-to-house
searches for others who may have been
exposed as the country struggles with families
resisting treatment at isolation centers. Some
have kept loved ones at home given the high
death rates at clinics where Ebola patients are
quarantined.
What Is Ebola?How the US Government Could
Evacuate Americans With EbolaEbola, Spreading
in Africa, Could Land in US His announcement
late Wednesday came as neighboring Liberia
also ramped up its efforts to slow the virulent
disease's spread, shutting down schools and
ordering most public servants to stay home
from work.
"It could be helpful for the government to have
powers to isolate and quarantine people and
it's certainly better than what's been done so
far," said Dr. Heinz Feldmann, chief of virology
at U.S. National Institute of Allergy and
Infectious Diseases. "Whether it works, we will
have to wait and see."
The U.S. Peace Corps also was evacuating
hundreds of its volunteers in the affected
countries. Two Peace Corps workers are under
isolation outside the U.S. after having contact
with a person who later died of the Ebola virus,
a State Department official said.
Ebola now has been blamed for 729 deaths in
four West African countries this year, and has
shown no signs of slowing down particularly in
Liberia and Sierra Leone. On Thursday, the
WHO announced 57 new deaths - 27 in Liberia,
20 in Guinea, nine in Sierra Leone and one in
Nigeria.
Among the deaths this week was that of the
chief doctor treating Ebola in Sierra Leone, who
was to be buried Thursday.
The government said Dr. Sheik Humarr Khan's
death was "an irreparable loss of this son of the
soil." The 39-year-old was a leading doctor on
hemorrhagic fevers in a nation with very few
medical resources.
Ebola cases first emerged in the nation of
Guinea back in March, and later spread across
the borders to Liberia and Sierra Leone. The
outbreak is now the largest recorded in world
history, and has infected three African capitals
with international airports. Officials are trying to
step up screening of passengers, though an
American man was able to fly from Liberia to
Nigeria, where authorities say he died days
later from Ebola.
Ebola has no vaccine and no specific treatment,
with a fatality rate of about 60 percent in this
particular outbreak. But experts say the risk of
travelers contracting it is considered low
because it requires direct contact with bodily
fluids or secretions such as urine, blood, sweat
or saliva. Ebola can't be spread like flu through
casual contact or breathing in the same air.
Patients are contagious only once the disease
has progressed to the point they show
symptoms, according to the World Health
Organization. The most vulnerable are health
care workers and relatives who come in much
closer contact with the sick.
In Liberia, authorities say 28 out of the 45
health workers who have contracted the disease
so far have died. Two American health workers
sick with the virus remain in isolation.
Sourc: abcnews
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