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WHO declares Ebola epidemic a global health emergency

Medical personnel work at the Donka hospital in Conakry, capital of Guinea, March 31, 2014/XINHUA-File

Medical personnel work at the Donka hospital in Conakry, capital of Guinea, March 31, 2014/XINHUA-File

GENEVA, Aug 8 – The World Health Organisation on Friday declared the Ebola epidemic sweeping across western Africa, where it has already killed nearly 1,000 people, an international health emergency.

The UN health body said its emergency committee, which includes global medical and policy experts, had declared the deadliest known outbreak of the Ebola virus a “public health emergency of international concern”.

Soldiers in Liberia’s Grand Cape Mount province – one of the worst-affected areas – set up road blocks to limit travel to the capital Monrovia, where lawmakers gathered to ratify a 90-day state of emergency as bodies reportedly lay unburied in the city’s streets.

Two towns in the east of Sierra Leone, Kailahun and Kenema, where put under quarantine on Thursday, a government spokesman said, as nightclubs and entertainment venues across the country were ordered shut.

Public sector doctors in Nigeria suspended a month-long strike with fears rising that the virus is taking hold in Africa’s most populous country.

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