African nations rush to contain Ebola

JOHANNESBURG – Liberia President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf has closed most of the country’s land borders, restricted public gatherings and quarantined communities that have seen Ebola outbreaks to try to contain the world’s worst outbreak of the deadly virus.

The measures announced late Sunday came after a Liberian official, Patrick Sawyer, 40, flew from Liberia to Nigeria’s most populous city, Lagos, last week, falling violently ill on the plane before collapsing on arrival at the airport. He died Friday of the virus.

There are fears that the incurable disease may gain a foothold in Lagos, with the possibility that passengers or crew may have contracted the illness.

Sawyer’s flight stopped in the Togolese capital, Lome, on the way to Lagos, raising fears the disease may spread to that country as well. World Health Organization officials have been sent to Lagos and Lome to follow up contacts with passengers and crew on the flight, said WHO spokesman Paul Garwood, Reuters reported.

Nigerian airline Arik on Sunday suspended flights to Liberia and Sierra Leone after Sawyer’s death, which amplified fears that the disease may spread to other countries in Africa or elsewhere.

Nigerian health authorities evacuated the hospital where Sawyer died and said Monday it would be closed for a week.

With criticisms that governments in the three West African countries have been slow to respond to the crisis, Johnson-Sirleaf announced the new measures, shutting all but three border points and introducing stringent health checks at those that remain open. She said health tests on all arriving and departing passengers would be carried out at airports.

“No doubt, the Ebola virus is a national health problem, and as we have also begun to see, it attacks our way of life, with serious economic and social consequences,” Johnson-Sirleaf said.

The outbreak is unprecedented both in geographical spread and the numbers of casualties, with 672 deaths since February, according to WHO. Doctors Without Borders, one of the main agencies combating the outbreak in West Africa, has described it as out of control.

Last week three doctors caring for Ebola patients contracted the disease, including Texas doctor Kent Brantly, who had been working at ELWA Hospital in Monrovia for a Christian charity group, the Samaritan’s Purse. An American missionary at the same hospital, Nancy Writebol, from a group called Serving in Mission, also contracted the virus.