Guinea shuts borders with Liberia and Sierra Leona over Ebola

Guinea has closed its borders with Liberia and Sierra Leona to control the outbreak of Ebola virus that has taken a toll of nearly 1,000 people in the three countries.

Addressing a news conference Guinea’s health minister Rémy Lamah said: “We have provisionally closed the frontier between Guinea and Sierra Leone and Liberia because of all the news that we have received from there recently.”

The World Health Organisation (WHO) figures show the three countries have already registered 1,779 deaths caused due to Ebola and have reported 68 new cases and 29 more deaths in the last two days.

The measure to block Guinea’s borders was taken in consultation with the two neighbouring countries and there has been no immediate comment from Liberia and Sierra Leona as yet.

Following today’s action, Zambia has restricted the entry of travellers from infected countries and banned Zambians from travelling to those countries as well. The country has also shunned organising any international conferences and events which could lead to mass gatherings.

The West African Ebola outbreak has been considered as the worst in history since Ebola was discovered in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1976.

On Friday WHO declared the spread of the virus as a global health emergency.

The disease is one of the deadliest known illnesses to humanity. It is highly contagious and kills up to 90 per cent of those infected. The virus can spread from one person to another: by direct contact with infected blood, bodily fluid, or body of the infected person. The symptoms include fever, dehydration, vomiting, muscle aches and diarrhoea. At present it has no proven cure and there is no vaccine to prevent the infection.

Aastha Gill