Ebola-ravaged Liberia declares state of emergency as poverty-stricken nation struggles to cope with spiralling crisis
Liberia’s President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf addressed the nation and warned that some civil rights may have to be suspended to help cope with the spiralling crisis
An Ebola-ravaged African nation declared a state of emergency last night.
Liberia’s President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf addressed the nation and warned that some civil rights may have to be suspended to help cope with the spiralling crisis.
She said: “The government and people of Liberia require now extraordinary measures for the very survival of our state and
for the protection of the lives of our people.”
for the protection of the lives of our people.”
The state of emergency will last for 90 days.
In Liberia’s capital Monrovia infected bodies are being dumped in the streets by relatives who fear they will be quarantined by the authorities.
The Ebola virus outbreak has killed more than 900 people in West Africa so far and is out of control in some areas.
Professor Peter Piot, who co-discovered Ebola in 1976, Professor David Heymann, the head of the Centre on Global Health Security, and Wellcome Trust director Prof Jeremy Farrar said there were several drugs and vaccines being studied for possible use against Ebola.
In a statement they said: “African governments should be allowed to make informed decisions about whether or not to use these products - for example to protect and treat healthcare workers who run especially high risks of infection.
They said “The WHO is the only body with the necessary international authority” to allow such experimental treatments , “must take on this greater leadership role”.
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