Ebola outbreakWest African countries intensify efforts to contain Ebola outbreak
Togo-based, pan-African airline ASKY has suspended all flights to and from the capitals of Liberia and Sierra Leone, and growing fears of the rapidly spreading Ebola virus have led the Liberian football association to cancel games. Liberia plans to shut down schools and many markets, place all non-essential public servants on leave and quarantine several communities. The rural communities which will be guaranteed will have food supplies and medical support ferried only by approved persons. All public facilities could be chlorinated and disinfected on Friday, and public gatherings have already been banned.
Togo-based, pan-African airline ASKY has suspended all flights to and from the capitals of Liberia and Sierra Leone, and growing fears of the rapidly spreading Ebola virus have led the Liberian football association to cancel games.
Last week, an American citizen, Patrick Sawyer, who worked for the Liberian government, became violently ill on an ASKY flight to Lagos, Nigeria and died two days later in a Lagos hospital.
“The suspension of flights to Freetown and Monrovia by ASKY is related to the fight against the spread of the Ebola virus,” said Afoussath Traore, a spokesman for the company.
“ASKY took this precautionary measure to ensure the safety of all: its passengers, staff and people of all countries covered by our network.”
ASKY, which works in partnership with Ethiopian Airlines, serves twenty destinations in central and west Africa.
The Guardian reports that the fact that the virus has moved across borders for the first time aboard the airline could mean new flight restrictions as part of a coordinated effort to contain the outbreaks, the International Civil Aviation Organization, the world aviation agency, said.
The ICAO secretary general, Raymond Benjamin, said: “Until now [the virus] had not impacted commercial aviation, but now we’re affected.
“We will have to act quickly. We will consult with the WHO [World Health Organization] to see what types of measures should be put in place.”
ASKY posted an announcement to its Web site saying it would stop transporting food from Conakry in Guinea and would screen all passengers travelling from the Guinean capital.
On Sunday, Nigerian carrier Arik also said it was halting direct flights to Liberia and Sierra Leone.
In Liberia, the football association announced on Tuesday that it had decided “to cease operations of football activities considering that football matches are contact sports, and Ebola is spread through bodily contact with an infected person.”
The Liberian finance ministry, where 127 people have died of the disease — Patrick Sawyer, the American who died in Lagos last Friday, worked for the ministry — said it had placed several senior officials under observation for three weeks after Sawyer died while on official business in Nigeria.
“All senior officials coming in direct or indirect contact with Mr. Sawyer have been placed on the prescribed 21 days of observatory surveillance,” the ministry said.
In Sierra Leone, a doctor in charge of an Ebola treatment center became another victim of the virus.
“Dr. Umar Khan died at 2 p.m.,” announced Brima Kargbo, the chief medical officer.
Khan was admitted last week into an anti-Ebola treatment facility run by the medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) after testing positive for the virus.
Since March, there have been more than 1,200 cases of Ebola and 672 deaths in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone.
In Victoria, Canada, it was announced that a Canadian doctor, Azaria Marthyman, had placed himself in quarantine as a precaution after spending weeks in West Africa treating patients with the virus alongside a U.S. doctor, Dr. Kent Brantly, who is now infected and being treated.
Marthyman has not tested positive, and has not shown any symptoms since returning to Canada on Saturday.
“Azaria is symptom-free right now and there is no chance of being contagious with Ebola if you are not exhibiting symptoms,” Melissa Strickland, a spokeswoman for Samaritan’s Purse hospital, told broadcaster CTV.
Brantly, 33, became infected with Ebola while working with patients in the Liberian capital.
West African countries now take the Ebola outbreak more seriously, are taking measures to contain it.
Liberia plans to shut down schools and many markets, place all non-essential public servants on leave and quarantine several communities. The rural communities which will be guaranteed will have food supplies and medical support ferried only by approved persons. All public facilities could be chlorinated and disinfected on Friday, and public gatherings have already been banned.
Nigerian authorities also mobilized — unusually swiftly by Nigerian standards. Police and health workers began printing information leaflets, including in widely spoken pidgin English. The country’s main carrier, Arik Air, has suspended flights between Nigeria, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, while international airports and seaports have been placed on red alert, and passengers are being monitored.