Liberia shuts its borders against Ebola

The spread of the deadly Ebola Virus across West Africa countries has forced Liberia – one of the three countries to have recorded the severest casualties from the disease – to close most of its borders.

The decision to close the borders was taken on Monday after a third doctor working to contain the virus in West Africa got infected.

President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf said only five entry points, including James Spriggs Payne Airport in Monrovia and Roberts International Airport – 50 kilometres further east – will remain open.

“Preventive and testing centres will be established at the five entry points for all outgoing and incoming travellers,” she said.

Johnson-Sirleaf also announced restrictions on public gatherings and requested hotels, restaurants, entertainment centres and video clubs, to show educational Ebola prevention videos.

She revealed plans of the government to install facilities to wash hands in government facilities and public places across the country, while communities seriously affected by Ebola would be quarantined.

Kent Brantly, an American doctor working to stop the outbreak, was infected with Ebola and is being treated at an isolation centre in Liberia.

Brantly became the third doctor in less than a week to fall ill with the virus.

A Liberian doctor, Samuel Brisbane, died on Saturday at a clinic in Monrovia, while Sierra Leone’s leading Ebola specialist, Sheikh Umar Khan, became ill last week after contracting the virus.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the current Ebola outbreak in three West Africa countries – Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia – is the deadliest ever, as 1,093 cases have been confirmed while 660 people have died.

Since the outbreak of the highly-contagious disease in February, there have been different measures to check its spread.

On Monday, Arik Air announced the suspension of its flight activities to Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Ebola causes massive haemorrhages and has a fatality rate of 90 per cent, while it is transmitted through blood and other body fluids.