Government

NEW YORK TIMES              October 3, 2014

MONROVIA, Liberia — The arrival in the United States of a Liberian man infected with the Ebola virus shows how difficult it is to control or restrict the disease from spreading, and how porous current procedures are in a world of globalized air travel.

Liberian officials said on Thursday that they planned to prosecute the passenger, Thomas E. Duncan, for lying on an airport questionnaire about not having contact with a person infected with Ebola before his travel — a pivotal part of the country’s screening process.

Mr. Duncan took three planes as he flew from Monrovia, the Liberian capital, to Dallas last month, connecting in Brussels and Washington.

Update

New York Times           Sept. 30, 2024

By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr

Lagos --With quick and coordinated action by some of its top doctors, Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, appears to have contained its first Ebola outbreak, the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday.

As the epidemic rages out of control in three nations only a few hundred miles away, Nigeria is the only country to have beaten back an outbreak with the potential to harm many victims in a city with vast, teeming slums.

“For those who say it’s hopeless, this is an antidote — you can control Ebola,” said Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, director of the C.D.C.   ....

Associated Press 

Les forces de sécurité déployées mercredi pour faire respecter une quarantaine autour d'un bidonville de la capitale libérienne, le renforcement de la lutte du gouvernement pour arrêter la propagation du virus Ebola et les résidents énervant. 

Le Liberia a le nombre de morts le plus élevé des quatre pays ouest-africains touchés par la terrible maladie, et le nombre de cas est en augmentation le plus rapide. Présidente Ellen Johnson Sirleaf a ordonné la mise en quarantaine et a imposé un couvre-feu nocturne qui commence mercredi, en disant que les autorités n'ont pas été en mesure d'enrayer la propagation du virus Ebola dans le visage de défiance de leurs recommandations. 

"Ces mesures visent à sauver des vies», dit-elle dans un discours mardi soir. 

Pendant le raid ce week-end à West Point bidonville, articles sanglantes ont été volés et les patients potentiels d'Ebola ont fui, laissant craindre la maladie se propage hors de contrôle dans une zone densément peuplée. Il n'était pas clair pourquoi les gens voler des objets qui pourraient transmettre l'infection, mais il ya encore beaucoup d'idées fausses au sujet de la dangerosité de la maladie et comment elle se propage.

The World Health Organization has declared the Ebola outbreak in West Africa to be an international public health emergency that requires an extraordinary response to stop its spread.

It is the largest and longest outbreak ever recorded of Ebola, which has a death rate of about 50 per cent and has so far killed at least 932 people.

"Countries affected to date simply do not have the capacity to manage an outbreak of this size and complexity on their own," WHO chief, Dr. Margaret Chan, said at a news conference in Geneva. "I urge the international community to provide this support on the most urgent basis possible."

In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have already elevated their Ebola response to the highest level and have recommended against travelling to West Africa. On Thursday, CDC director Dr. Tom Frieden told a Congressional hearing that the current outbreak is set to sicken more people than all previous outbreaks of the disease combined.