Viral disease: Ebola-hit states seal outbreak epicenter

CONAKRY: Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone announced on Friday an isolation zone sealing off the epicentre of the world’s worst-ever Ebola outbreak, where the three countries meet. “We have agreed to take important and extraordinary actions at the inter-country level to focus on cross-border regions that have more than 70 percent of the epidemic,” said Hadja Saran Darab, the secretary-general of the Mano River Union bloc grouping the West African nations. “These areas will be isolated by police and military. The people in these areas being isolated will be provided with material support.” The announcement came at the end of an emergency summit, also attended by Ivory Coast and the World Health Organisation, to launch a $100 million response to an epidemic which has killed more 700 people.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 2^nd, 2014.