|
 Senegal and Nigeria, the most recent of five nations to record cases
of Ebola, implemented strict measures to isolate the ill and track
down further possible cases -- steps that Guinea, Liberia and Sierra
Leone have failed to impose, allowing the disease to take hold in
cities and rural communities.
Sierra Leone said it had registered 130 new cases of Ebola during a
three-day national lockdown that ended late on Sunday, the most
radical move yet to try to contain a disease that has killed around
half of those it infects and is crippling some of the weakest
countries in West Africa.
The current outbreak was first identified in the forests of
southeastern Guinea in March and then spread into neighboring
Liberia and Sierra Leone, where it overwhelmed weak national health
systems.
In Nigeria, 20 cases were recorded and eight people died. There have
been no deaths from one confirmed case in Senegal.
"On the whole, the outbreaks in Senegal and Nigeria are pretty much
contained," a WHO statement said.
However, the U.N. agency said the world's worst outbreak of the
virus remains a "public health emergency of international concern",
which will guarantee it the body's priority attention.
The international response has failed to match the spread of a
disease that has exposed the fragility of the state in Guinea and
threatened to undo progress made in rebuilding Liberia and Sierra
Leone after their wars of the 1990s.
Donors have since pledged hundreds of millions of dollars in aid and
the U.S. government is scrambling 3,000 soldiers to the region to
build an extra 17 treatment centers and train thousands of local
medics.
The Pentagon said about 60 U.S. military personnel had arrived in
the region so far and another 30-40 are scheduled to arrive in the
next few days.
The U.S. plan has been welcomed but aid workers say other rich
nations should follow Washington's lead with cash, supplies and
personnel. The WHO has said the world must act quickly to keep the
number of cases in the tens of thousands.
The European Union has pledged 140 million euros ($180 million) to
fight the virus and Beatrice Lorenzin, Italy's health minister, said
European countries are assessing their resources to plan a
coordinated response.
"Only four or five countries in Europe are equipped. We will work
together to coordinate the aid effort," she said as EU health
ministers met in Milan on Monday.
"FOOT SOLDIERS" NEEDED
Ebola has prompted a range of policy measures from African
governments, including border closures and travel bans, though none
as severe as Sierra Leone, where residents emerged on Monday from a
72-hour lockdown.
Authorities say they reached more than 80 percent of households
targeted in their sensitization campaign.
"The outreach was just overwhelming," Stephen Gaojia, head of the
Ebola Emergency Operations Centre, said on Monday.
The country now needs to focus on treatment and case management and
it urgently requires treatment centers in all its 14 districts as
well as "foot soldiers" in clinics and hospitals, he said.
[to top of second column] |
The government is still waiting for results from a further 39
suspected cases, Gaojia said. There were no new deaths in Guinea,
four in Sierra Leone and 39 in Liberia, according to the latest
figures from the WHO.
Authorities in Guinea said they have arrested 20 people as part of
an investigation into the killing last week of nine members of a
delegation attempting to educate people about Ebola in a remote part
of the southeast of the country.
The killings underscored how much some rural populations in the
affected countries mistrust authorities after years of instability
and conflict.
A separate, unrelated, Ebola outbreak has killed 41 people in
Democratic Republic of Congo, where there have been 68 cases, WHO
said in a statement on the situation as of Sept 18.
PRIEST IN SERIOUS CONDITION
Independent health advisers to the WHO have assessed that there
should be no general ban on travel or trade with countries where the
virus has struck, but some airlines have maintained suspensions on
flights to affected areas.
The WHO and other agencies this say this hampers aid efforts and the
ability of experts to reach victims. "The (WHO Emergency) Committee
strongly reiterated that there should be no general ban on
international travel or trade," WHO said.
Canadian drugmaker Tekmira Pharmaceuticals Corp said on Monday that
U.S. and Canadian regulators have authorized the use of its Ebola
treatment in patients who have confirmed or suspected infections.
The Vancouver-based company said its treatment, TKM-Ebola, has been
administered to patients on an emergency basis and the repeat
infusions have been well-tolerated.
An elderly Spanish priest, in a serious condition after being
infected in Sierra Leone, will not receive the experimental drug
ZMapp because world supplies are exhausted, Madrid health
authorities said on Monday.
ZMapp was used to treat several Ebola patients who recovered. Its
use is part of a push by drug manufacturers to devise a cure or a
vaccine for the disease, which has killed about 48 percent of those
infected in the current epidemic.
Manuel Garcia Viejo, 69, was taken to Madrid's Carlos III hospital
at about 0200 GMT (1000 EDT) after he was repatriated.
(Additional reporting by Saliou Samb in Conakry, Tom Miles and
Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva, Raquel Castillo in Madrid, Ilaria
Polleschi in Milan, Amrutha Penumudi in Bangalore and Rod Nickel in
Winnipeg, Phillip Stewart in Washington; Writing by Matthew Mpoke
Bigg; Editing by David Lewis and Sonya Hepinstall)
[© 2014 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2014 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |
