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 The world's worst epidemic of the hemorrhagic fever on record has
killed at least 5,160 people since it erupted in March in West
Africa, a region dogged by poverty and poor healthcare. It has
ravaged Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea and spurred a global watch
for its spread.
Liberia, the country hardest hit by the outbreak, announced it would
not renew a state of emergency, highlighting at least some recent
progress in neutralizing the virus there.
In Mali, which shares an 800-km (500-mile) border with Guinea, a
25-year-old health worker became the country's second confirmed case
of Ebola on Tuesday, although four deaths in Mail have been
attributed to the disease.
The nurse died after treating a Muslim Imam from Guinea, who
suffered from Ebola-like symptoms that were not recognized.
On Thursday a doctor at the same clinic was also revealed to be
infected. A woman who was being treated at Bamako's Gabriel Toure
Hospital - the city's second largest - tested positive as well.
"We tested two cases today. One was negative but the other
preliminary test was positive. We're waiting for the definitive
results," health ministry spokesman Daou Markatié said. "She had
participated in the washing of the imam's body."
More than 90 people were quarantined in the capital Bamako after the
nurse's death, and health workers are now seeking to trace an
unknown number of contact cases.
"The president of the republic has asked the prime minister to look
urgently at the entire system put in place to fight Ebola and to
strengthen health controls at the different frontier posts," a
government statement said.
But officials said there were no plans to close the border, even
though the nurse had been infected by a man who arrived from Guinea.
President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta urged the World Health Organization
(WHO) and health services in Mali and neighboring states to set up a
permanent information exchange to improve awareness about public
health and hygiene.
Fueling hope of progress in containing the disease, Liberian
President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf said she would not seek to extend a
state of emergency imposed in August.
On Wednesday, the WHO said the Ebola death toll in Guinea, Liberia
and Sierra Leone had reached 5,147 out of 14,068 cases as of Nov. 9,
with 13 more deaths and 30 cases recorded in Nigeria, Senegal, Mali,
Spain and the United States. It said there was some evidence that
case incidence was no longer increasing nationally in Guinea and
Liberia, but steep increases persist in Sierra Leone.
Some 421 new infections were reported in Sierra Leone in the week to
Nov. 9, especially in the west and north, and the virus is still
spreading intensely in Freetown, the capital, as well as in Guinea's
southwest near the Liberian border, the WHO said.
The Liberian emergency, which allowed authorities to curb movement
in the areas worst affected, officially expired earlier this month.
Sirleaf said a night curfew would remain in effect.
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CLINIC IN LOCKDOWN
The death of the nurse in Mali forced a lockdown in the clinic where
she had worked.
The Pasteur Clinic, one of Bamako's leading medical facilities and
the default health center for expatriates, was being guarded by U.N.
peacekeepers with armored personnel carriers and by Malian security
forces, witnesses said.
Mali's first case of Ebola was a 2-year-old girl who had been
infected in Guinea and died last month.
Just as the people who had been in contact with her finished their
21 days of quarantine, Mali must now trace those who had contact
with the nurse and those infected with her.
Last September, the International Monetary Fund provided $130
million to Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone in September to help
them cope with the economic impact of Ebola. On Thursday, it said it
would discuss debt relief for the three countries with Group of 20
leaders meeting in Australia this week.
In Washington, the Obama administration tried to assure a skeptical
Senate that its efforts to combat Ebola were bearing fruit and urged
lawmakers to approve $6.2 billion in new emergency funds for that
purpose.
Tens of thousands of nurses across the United States staged protest
rallies and strikes on Wednesday over what they say is insufficient
protection for health workers dealing with patients possibly
stricken with Ebola.
The global medical charity Medecins sans Frontieres said on Thursday
that clinical trials of three potential Ebola treatments would begin
in December at MSF medical centers in Guinea and Liberia.
(Additional reporting by Joe Penney in Bamako, Alphonso Toweh in
Monrovia, Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva, David Morgan and Kia Johnson
in Washington, Curtis Skinner in San Francisco, Kate Kelland in
London; Writing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg, Mark Heinrich and Joe Bavier;
Editing by Kevin Liffey and Tom Brown)
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