The World Health Organization said the death toll had risen to 729 from 672, after 57 more people died during a four-day period between July 24 and 27 in Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation. In the same period, 122 new cases were detected, bringing the total of confirmed and probably infected patients to 1,323. The toll is the highest in a single outbreak since the virus was identified almost four decades ago.
Federal health officials in the United States on Thursday advised Americans to avoid nonessential travel to the West African countries Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia because of the Ebola virus outbreak. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a “Level 3” warning, its most serious type of travel notice, indicating “high risk” to visitors in the affected countries. This kind of advisory is uncommon and reserved for grave situations: It has been used in the past for the outbreak of the highly contagious respiratory disease SARS, and for the earthquake in Haiti.Continue reading the main storyVideo
Desperate to contain the outbreak, President Ernest Bai Koroma of Sierra Leone declared a public health emergency calling for the deployment of security forces to quarantine the epicenters of infection. He also said he would not be making a planned visit to the United States.
His actions followed steps announced in Liberia to close schools, put nonessential government workers on compulsory leave for 30 days and order the deployment of security forces to combat the outbreak. The Peace Corps, an outreach program run by the United States government, said it was withdrawing its 340 volunteers from the three countries most affected by the virus.
“The epidemic is very big, very dispersed,” said Dr. Hilde de Clerck, the interim emergency coordinator in Sierra Leone for Doctors Without Borders. “It seems logical that the country is reacting. I do understand that the central government has to do something. Cases are now being reported in more southern regions. There is a geographical spread. We do see that it is several districts that are hit now.”
Nigeria recorded its only known death from Ebola when an American working in Liberia died there after landing in Lagos earlier this month. The airport authorities said on Thursday they had begun checking passengers arriving from the three main affected countries — Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea — for high temperatures, and would order compulsory blood tests for those with worrisome symptoms. Airport checks are also in force in Sierra Leone, and Ghana announced new screening procedures on Thursday.
In an address to the nation in Sierra Leone posted late Wednesday on the presidential website, Mr. Koroma said the emergency would “enable us take a more robust approach to deal with the Ebola outbreak.”
Mr. Koroma, who had been planning to attend a United States-Africa summit meeting in Washington, said that he would instead travel to Guinea on Friday to discuss a regional response to the outbreak. President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia was also reported to have canceled her attendance at the gathering in Washington. President Alpha Condé of Guinea still plans to attend, a spokeswoman at the Guinea Embassy in Washington confirmed on Thursday.
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