Sierra Leone quarantine affects 2 million people

Source: AP-Excite

By CLARENCE ROY-MACAULAY

FREETOWN, Sierra Leone (AP) — Sierra Leone on Thursday took the dramatic step of sealing off districts where more than 1 million people live as it and two other West African countries struggled to control an Ebola outbreak that has claimed thousands of lives.

The newly declared quarantine areas mean that about one-third of the country's 6 million people are now living in areas where their movements are heavily restricted. In parts of Sierra Leone and in neighboring Liberia where these cordons have been used in this outbreak, food prices have soared, some markets have shut and the delivery of goods has slowed.

"There is a desperate need to step up our response to this dreaded disease," the Sierra Leone government said. "The prognosis is that without additional interventions or changes in community behavior, the numbers will increase exponentially and the situation will rapidly deteriorate."

In other parts of Sierra Leone, including the capital, Freetown, homes will be put under quarantine when cases are identified, according to a government statement. Security forces surrounded a house in a Freetown slum on Wednesday, quarantining residents inside, after a popular herbalist who lived there died from Ebola. The forces are stationed outside to ensure that no one leaves or enters until it's clear that no one else in the house has been infected.

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A man suspected of being infected by the Ebola virus lies on the ground before being loaded by health care workers on to an ambulance in Freetown, Sierra Leone, Wednesday, Sept. 24, 2014. U.S. health officials Tuesday laid out worst-case and best-case scenarios for the Ebola epidemic in West Africa, warning that the number of infected people could explode to at least 1.4 million by mid-January {2014} or peak well below that, if efforts to control the outbreak are ramped up.(AP Photo/ Michael Duff)


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