Unrest in Liberia over quarantine as curent Ebola outbreak cases surpasses all previous

World Today

Liberia security forces blockade an area around the West Point Ebola center as the government clamps down on the movement of people to prevent the spread of the Ebola virus in the city of Monrovia, Liberia, Wednesday, Aug. 20, 2014. Photo: AP/Abbas Dulleh

Liberian security forces cordoned off a seaside slum in the capital Wednesday in the latest effort to stop the spread of Ebola, quickly setting off violent protests by angry residents.

Based on the latest information from the World Health Organization, Wednesday marked the point where the number of cases from current outbreak surpassed the number of cases from all previous outbreaks combined. WHO counts 2,473 cases from the current East Africa Ebola outbreak, and 2,387 from all previous outbreaks dating to the first case in 1978.

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Data: WHO

The Ebola outbreak, which began in December, has killed at least 1,229 people in Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria.

Liberia has the highest death toll, and its number of cases is rising the fastest. In response, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf ordered West Point sealed off and imposed a nighttime curfew, saying authorities have not been able to curtail the spread of Ebola in the face of defiance of their recommendations.

Here’s what you need to know about Ebola.

Sirleaf also ordered gathering places like movie theaters and night clubs shut and put Dolo Town, 30 miles (50 kilometers) south of the capital, under quarantine as well.

“These measures are meant to save lives,” she said in an address Tuesday night.

Fear and tension have been building in Monrovia for days and West Point has been one of the flash points. Many residents feel the government has not done enough to protect them from the spread of Ebola.

See all of CCTV America’s coverage of the 2014 Ebola outbreak.

West Point residents raided an Ebola screening center over the weekend, accusing officials of bringing sick people from all over Monrovia into their neighborhood. In many areas of the capital, meanwhile, dead bodies have lain in the streets for hours, sometimes days, even though residents asked that the corpses be picked up by Health Ministry workers wearing protective gear.

A resident of the West Point district told The Associated Press by phone that security forces were firing into the air to disperse crowds angry over the quarantine measures.

Riot police and soldiers created roadblocks out of piles of scrap wood and barbed wire to prevent anyone from entering or leaving West Point, which occupies a peninsula where the Mesurado River meets the Atlantic Ocean.

Few roads go into the area, and a major road runs along the base of the isthmus, serving as a barrier between the neighborhood and the rest of Monrovia. Ferries to the area have been halted, and a coast guard boat was patrolling the waters around the peninsula.

Mistrust of authorities is rampant in this poorly served area, where many people live without electricity or access to clean water. At least 50,000 people live on the half-mile-long (kilometer-long) point, which is one of the poorest and most densely populated neighborhoods of the capital. Sanitation is poor even in the best of times, and defecation in the streets and beaches is a major problem.

While whole counties and districts in Sierra Leone and Liberia have been put under quarantine and internal travel restrictions have limited the movement of people in Guinea, the West Point quarantine was the first time such restrictions have been put in place in a capital city.

Nigeria’s health minister, Onyebuchi Chukwu, said Tuesday that a fifth person had died of the disease in that country. All of Nigeria’s reported cases so far have been people who had direct contact with a Liberian-American man who was already infected when he arrived in the country on an airliner.

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Article based on reporting by The Associated Press writers Jonathan Paye-Layleh and Wade Williams. Associated Press writer Maram Mazen in Lagos, Nigeria, contributed to this report.