Liberia In Ebola "Free Fall" Thanks In Large Part To Shattered Society, Venal Government

[hatrack]

The massive effort to get control of the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, the most devastating in history with more than 1,350 dead to date, has taken some bizarre turns in Liberia. The country's government on Tuesday quarantined a slum in Monrovia, the capital, provoking clashes there between angry residents and authorities.

The country's public health officials had already been reduced to rounding up patients that angry mobs "liberated" from an isolation facility last weekend, imposing a nationwide curfew of 9 p.m. to 6 a.m., and fighting the pernicious rumor that the hemorrhagic fever still raging through West Africa is a hoax. (Related: Q&A: American Virus Expert in Africa's Ebola Zone: 'This is Like War')

The situation in Liberia has been described by an experienced member of one response team as being in "free fall," while Doctors Without Borders said the situation in Monrovia is "catastrophic." Liberia now has more cases and more deaths than any other country, with 576 patients dead, compared to 396 in Guinea and 374 in Sierra Leone. Dozens of health care workers in the country have been infected with the virus. (Related: Successful Marburg Virus Treatment Offers Hope for Ebola Patients.)

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But the challenge came to a head last weekend when a mob of Monrovians overran an isolation facility in the slum known as West Point, moved out at least 17 suspected patients and their relatives, and made off with contaminated beds and other materials. Brown said that all 17 have since been found and sent to the John F. Kennedy Medical Center in Monrovia. But West Point's 50,000 people are now under quarantine. It was especially frightening to one observer who watched last weekend's mob touching and holding the people leaving the facility, since one of the main weapons in staunching the spread of Ebola is to avoid direct contact with people who have the disease.

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http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/08/140820-ebola-virus-liberia-monrovia-health-africa/

[Demeter]

1. Black Death, here we come. Or Maybe Should Be Called "Red Death"

I think the authorities don't know what to get alarmed about. This disease was discovered in 1975.

[Louisiana1976]

2. Ever read the Poe story Masque of the Red Death? I had to study it in high school English.