EBOLA VIRUS - WHO calls for screening at borders in West Africa

Ebola: WHO calls for screening at

borders in West Africa

19 Aug

Countries affected by the Ebola outbreak have been asked to introduce exit screenings at all international airports, seaports and major land crossings in order to stop the spread of the disease in West Africa.

The recommendation comes from the World Health Organization [WHO], which has set up a task force to monitor and contain the outbreak, reports Time magazine. The task force will also be responsible for providing information to governments and transport companies, but it has not so far not called for general travel bans.

"Any person with an illness consistent with [the Ebola virus] should not be allowed to travel unless the travel is part of an appropriate medical evacuation", the UN health agency said. It added that non–affected countries in the region "need to strengthen the capacity to detect and immediately contain new cases".

Separately, it has now been confirmed that 17 patients who were freed from a quarantine centre in Liberia last week are indeed missing, the BBC reports. This is despite claims from some health care workers that they had been moved to another facility. The attack on the centre was described as Liberia's "greatest setback" during the current Ebola outbreak by the country's information minister.

"Assaults on health workers and facilities seriously affect access to health care, depriving patients of treatment and interrupting measures to prevent and control contagious diseases", said the WHO's Dr Richard Brennan.

The death toll has now risen to 1,229 with 2,240 confirmed cases across Sierra Leone, Guinea, Liberia and Nigeria. Sierra Leone is currently the worst affected nation with 810 cases of Ebola across 12 of the country's 13 districts.

Read more: http://www.theweek.co.uk