Soldiers stand guard at a roadblock outside Kenema, Sierra Leone. Photo: New York Times
New York: The Ebola outbreak in West Africa is now so extensive that governments have revived a disease-fighting tactic not used in nearly a century: the “cordon sanitaire”, in which a line is drawn around the infected area and no one is allowed out.
Cordons, common in the mediaeval era of the Black Death, have not been seen since the border between Poland and the Soviet Union was closed in 1918 to stop typhus from spreading west. They have the potential to become brutal and inhumane. Centuries ago, in their most extreme form, everyone within the boundaries was left to die or survive until the outbreak ended.
Plans for the new cordon were announced on August 1 at an emergency meeting in Conakry, Guinea, of the Mano River Union, a regional association of Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, the three countries hardest hit by Ebola, according to Agence France-Presse. The plan was to isolate a triangular area where the three countries meet.
In this picture released on August 7, Spanish priest Miguel Pajares returns to Spain after contracting Ebola in Liberia. He has since died. Photo: Inaki Gomez/Spanish Defence Ministry
An elderly Spanish priest infected with Ebola has died in a Madrid hospital, five days after being evacuated from Liberia.