Liberia has quarantined schools and closed schools in the toughest measures yet imposed by a West African government trying to halt the worst Ebola outbreak on record.
Security forces in Liberia were ordered to enforce the measures as part of an action plan that included placing all non-essential government workers on 30-day compulsory leave.
As of July 23, 672 deaths have been blamed on Ebola in Liberia, neighbouring Guinea and Sierra Leone, according to World Health Organisation figures.
Liberia accounted for just under one-fifth of those deaths.
There is no cure for the disease, which causes vomiting, diarrhoea and internal and external bleeding.
“This is a major public health emergency,” Liberia’s information minister Lewis Brown told Reuters.
“It is fierce, deadly and many of our countrymen are dying and we need to act to stop the spread.
“We need the support of the international community now more than ever. We desperately need all the help we can get.”
Referring to the orders issued to the security forces to impose the plan, he added: “We are hoping there will be a level of understanding and that there will not be a need for exceptional force.”
Patients treated in health worker’s homes
Liberian health officials earlier said an isolation unit for Ebola victims in Liberia’s capital, Monrovia, was overrun with cases and health workers are being forced to treat up to 20 new patients in their homes.
Protests by the local community against the construction of a new isolation unit at Elwa Hospital have ended, said Tolbert Nyenswah, an assistant minister of health, but patients with Ebola symptoms will have to wait at home until work is finished.
“The staff here are overwhelmed. This is a humanitarian crisis in Liberia,” he told Reuters by telephone.
“People are being given care at their homes until we can move them to the new unit.”
Mr Nyenswah said the suspected patients were being treated by trained medical staff with full protective gear, but it would take at least 24-36 hours to build the new unit.
Initial resistance to building a new isolation unit highlighted the fear and mistrust health workers have faced across West Africa as they battle the outbreak, which has strained the region’s weak health systems.
Dozens of local health workers have died treating patients and two Americans working for Samaritan’s Purse, a US charity operating in Liberia, were infected over the past week.
Samaritans Purse said on Wednesday that Kent Brantly, a doctor working for Samaritan’s Purse, and Nancy Writebol, a colleague who was also volunteering in Liberia, had shown a slight improvement but were still in serious condition.
The organisation said that it was withdrawing non-essential staff from the country because of instability and security issues.
The doctor leading Sierra Leone’s fight against Ebola died on Tuesday afternoon (local time) from the virus.
Meanwhile the US Peace Corps said it was withdrawing 340 volunteers from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea due to the spreading Ebola virus.
The Peace Corps currently has 102 volunteers in Guinea, 108 in Liberia and 130 in Sierra Leone.
Reuters