The heavy security measures suggest Spain is taking the deadly disease very seriously. 75-year-old Miguel Pajares had been working as a missionary in the west African state when he tested positive for Ebola at a hospital in Monrovia.
A nun who is also a Spanish national from Equatorial Guinea will also be repatriated. She has not tested positive but has been exposed to the virus. Liberia, meanwhile, has declared a state of emergency as authorities struggle to ‘deal effectively’ with the outbreak.Liberia’s vice president Joseph Boakai Sr. Said, “Medical doctors were not getting access to patients, because they been attacked. So we also wanted to restrict the movement, to give the chance, to be able to control the disease.” Liberia, meanwhile, has declared a state of emergency as authorities struggle to ‘deal effectively’ with the outbreak. Liberia’s Vice President Joseph Boakai Sr. Said, “Medical doctors were not getting access to patients, because they been attacked. So we also wanted to restrict the movement, to give the chance, to be able to control the disease.”
The United Nations World Health Organisation (WHO) has described the Ebola outbreak in West Africa as an ‘international emergency’. At a news conference during crisis talks in Geneva, WHO Director-General Dr. Margaret Chan stressed the need for a coordinated international response to the most severe Ebola outbreak ever recorded.
Ebola, one of the deadliest diseases known to humans, has killed more than 930 people in West Africa since February and is still spreading fast. Guinea, Sierra Leone and Nigeria are the other countries affected. There is no licensed treatment or vaccine. But the WHO says that the spread of the disease can be stopped if the right steps are taken to detect it and deal with affected.
