Ebola: Liberia declares state of emergency

Liberia’s president declared a state of emergency on Wednesday to combat the ongoing outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus in West Africa, as the country began implementing quarantine checkpoints. The country’s president, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, said that the scale of the Ebola outbreak represents a threat to Liberia’s security. “The government and people of Liberia require extraordinary measures for the very survival of our state and for the protection of the lives of our people,”she said via statement.“I…hereby declare a State of Emergency throughout the Republic of Liberia effective as of Aug. 6, 2014 for a period of 90 days.” The World Health Organization announced that 932 people have died from the recent Ebola outbreak, as the organization begins to consider whether experimental drugs should be deployed to West Africa to help contain the situation.The WHO is to decide whether it will declare an international public health emergency in order to deal with the outbreak in the coming days. According to Reuters, the WHO said Wednesday that 45 more people died as a result of the virus between August 2-4, raising the death toll closer to 1,000 in what is being billed as the world’s worst Ebola outbreak. The organization estimates that approximately 1,711 cases have been detected so far. Liberia was hit the hardest over the past few days, with 27 of the 45 newly tabulated deaths occurring there. Sierra Leone was home to 13 of the deaths, and Guinea had five new fatalities. While the outbreak has primarily affected these three countries, the WHO said the number of suspected Ebola cases in Nigeria rose to nine after five more were discovered. A Nigerian nurse who was assisting with the treatment of Ebola patients in the country has reportedly passed away from the disease, while a Saudi Arabian man believed to have contracted Ebola during a trip to Sierra Leone also died Wednesday morning. Additionally, a key hospital in Liberia – St. Joseph’s Catholic – was shut down after a Spanish priest and six others were diagnosed with the highly contagious virus. Spain is expected to transfer the priest to his native country.