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Rose Komono poses for a picture at a health clinic after overcoming the Ebola virus, in Gueckedou, Guinea, April 3, 2014.
VOA News
April 17, 2014
The
World Health Organization says the death toll from the Ebola outbreak
in West Africa has risen to at least 135.In a Thursday statement the WHO
says Guinea's health ministry had reported a total of 122 deaths, while
13 deaths had been reported by Liberian health officials.The WHO
says officials are investigating more than 200 suspected or confirmed
cases of the virus in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
Health
workers wearing protective suits walk in an isolation center for people
infected with Ebola at Donka Hospital in Conakry, Guinea. Photo / AFP
The Gambia has banned flights from Ebola-hit west African countries from landing in its territory, airport officials said.
Staff
at Banjul International Airport said on condition of anonymity that
President Yahya Jammeh had ordered airlines to cancel all flights from
Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone in a bid to prevent the spread of the
deadly virus.
"This decision by the Gambian authorities has left
prospective passengers travelling to Banjul ... stranded in these west
African countries," said an airport official, speaking on condition of
anonymity.
"Brussels Airlines, which transits in Freetown from Europe, is only allowed to drop passengers there, but not pick anyone up."
The
outbreak in Guinea is one of the deadliest in history, with 168 cases
"clinically compatible" with Ebola virus disease reported, including 108
deaths, since the start of the year, according to the World Health
Organisation.
The
outbreak began in the impoverished country's southern forests, but has
spread to Conakry, a sprawling port city on the Atlantic coast and home
to two million people
Neighbouring Liberia has reported 20 probable or suspected cases, six lab-confirmed cases and 13 deaths.
Mali
also had suspected cases but was given the all-clear on Tuesday after
samples taken from patients tested negative for Ebola in laboratories,
the health ministry told reporters in Bamako.
There was no
official confirmation of the ban from the Gambia but AFP has seen a
letter dated April 10 from the transport ministry notifying airlines of
the measures while Sierra Leone's government said it was in talks with
Banjul over the issue.
It was not immediately clear if sanctions were being threatened against airlines or airport authorities for ignoring the ban.
"I
went to the Gambia Bird (airlines) office in the Greater Banjul area to
purchase an air ticket for my elder brother currently in Monrovia but
was informed by the travel agent that they are not selling tickets to
passengers travelling from Monrovia and Freetown," Banjul resident Nyima
Sanneh told AFP.
An outbreak of the Ebola virus has claimed at least 63 lives in the African nation of Guinea.
To
combat the spread of this deadly disease, Guinean officials have taken
the unusual step of banning the consumption of bat soup, grilled bat and
other local delicacies.
"We discovered the vector [infectious] agent of the Ebola virus is the bat," Remy Lamah, the country’s health minister, told Bloomberg News.
"We sent messages everywhere to announce the ban. People must even
avoid consumption of rats and monkeys. They are very dangerous animals."
[5 Things You Should Know About Ebola]
What Is Ebola?
Ebola
is a hemorrhagic virus that spreads through bodily fluids and can cause
high fever, diarrhea, vomiting and internal and external bleeding.
There is no vaccine or cure, and Ebola is fatal up to 90 percent of the
time, according to the National Institutes of Health.
Medical
experts believe that animals are the natural hosts for the Ebola virus,
which has in the past been transmitted to humans via chimpanzees,
gorillas and monkeys. Though bats and other mammals can harbor the
virus, they may not show any symptoms of the disease.
Beware of bats: Guinea issues bushmeat warning after Ebola outbreak
BY SALIOU SAMB AND ALPHONSO TOWEH
CONAKRY/MONROVIA (Reuters)
– Bushmeat – from bats to antelopes, squirrels, porcupines and monkeys –
has long held pride of place on family menus in West and Central
Africa, whether stewed, smoked or roasted.
A visit to a
traditional market in the region assails the senses with a huge variety
of forest game – mammal, bird and reptile carcasses smoked and
partitioned and the smell of singed animal hair filling the air.
But
an outbreak of the deadly Ebola fever in Guinea has rekindled concerns
about the health risks of age-old African hunting and eating traditions
that bring humans into close contact with wild forest animals.
The
World Health Organization says about 86 suspected cases of Ebola have
been reported, with 62 deaths so far. Guinean authorities put the death
toll at 63.
Experts who have studied the Ebola virus from its
discovery in 1976 in Democratic Republic of Congo, then Zaire, say its
suspected origin – what they call the reservoir host – is forest bats.
Links have also been made to the carcasses of freshly slaughtered
animals consumed as bushmeat.
Bats – often served in a spicy stew
called “kedjenou” – have long been a favourite in Guinea’s southeastern
Forest Zone, the epicenter of the current outbreak. But sales of these
and other bushmeat delicacies have now been banned by Guinean
authorities fighting the Ebola outbreak.
“We visited the markets
in the region and there was no more bat meat on sale,” Colonel Remy
Lamah, Minister of Health, said from the area hit by the outbreak, which
borders Ivory Coast, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
Liberia and Sierra
Leone, which have reported suspected Ebola deaths, announced similar
bans on the sale of bushmeat, spreading alarm and dismay among consumers
and the many who make a living from the trade.
“PEOPLE WON’T BUY OUR MEAT”
“Our
people here eat monkey and bat … we have warned them about eating
bushmeat,” said Tolbert G. Nyenswah, a health official in Liberia. “We
have warned them about coming into contact with fresh meat. We have also
warned them about eating dead animals when they don’t know what killed
them.”
In Ivory Coast’s commercial hub Abidjan, signs at the
Yopougon bushmeat market still offer rats, porcupine, agouti, squirrels,
pangolin and bats “stewed or braised”.
“We’ve heard the announcement and we’re worried because people won’t buy our meat now,” said vendor Sophie Ouattara.
At
least six people were killed when a decades-old bridge collapsed in
heavy rain in the capital of Sierra Leone on Friday, leaving dozens
feared trapped in the rubble and sparking a major rescue operation,
police said. The King Jimmy crossing, which connects the west of the
capital with the city centre, collapsed at around 04:00 am. Six bodies
were recovered from the scene, police said in a statement, without
giving details about the victims. "Many more are still believed to be
trapped in the wreckage," a senior security official told reporters.
Rescue workers as well as military officers and policemen were scouring
the accident site for survivors as torrential rain continued to lash the
city. Local residents told AFP that dozens of homeless youngsters
usually live under the bridge in the rundown area, sparking fears they
were buried when the structure gave way. "There was a slight rumble and
then the bridge snapped amidst a hale of choking brown dust," said one
witness, who did not wish to be named. Works Minister Alimamy Koroma
visited the scene and said it was "an unfortunate disaster which will be
thoroughly investigated" while the mayor of Freetown, Bode Gibson,
called it "a sad development". The bridge is one of the major crossings
in central Freetown. It is named after a chief who led a local tribe
around the 1700s and is located near a vibrant riverside market from
where thousands of people were trafficked as slaves to the Americas in
the 18th century
...
Six killed as Sierra Leone bridge collapses in heavy rain
FREETOWN
(AFP) – At least six people were killed when a decades-old bridge
collapsed in heavy rain in the capital of Sierra Leone on Friday,
leaving dozens feared trapped in the rubble and sparking a major rescue
operation, police said.
The King Jimmy crossing, which connects the west of the capital with the city centre, collapsed at around 04:00 am.
Six bodies were recovered from the scene, police said in a statement, without giving details about the victims.
“Many more are still believed to be trapped in the wreckage,” a senior security official told reporters.
Rescue
workers as well as military officers and policemen were scouring the
accident site for survivors as torrential rain continued to lash the
city.
A female Gambian fruit bat.
