Liberia, July 28: Liberia in West Africa having a population of about 3.5 million was Africa’s first Republic and is currently ruled by the continent’s first female President who is also a Nobel Laureate. The country was torn into pieces when there were internal conflicts which led to first Civil war from 1989 to 1996 and was followed by another war in 1999 which lasted to 2003. The conflict killed over 200,000 people and eventually led to the involvement of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and of the United Nations. 

Sadly however Liberia is now probably best known for a long running and brutal conflict that ran for most of the period 1989 to 2003 is now badly effected by a highly contagious Ebola virus which is one of the most deadly diseases in the world which has no cure. Ebola hemorrhagic fever is a rare and deadly disease. The disease is native to several African countries and is caused by infection with one of the EBOLA viruses. It is said that it can spread by direct contact with a sick person’s blood or body fluids, sweat and by shaking hands with the affected person. It is also spread by contact with contaminated objects or infected animals.

The present government along with United Nations is rebuilding the country after war and now combating  Ebola virus. An Ebola outbreak began with a just a handful of cases in Guinea in March, but it spread quickly to neighbouring countries of Liberia and Sierra Leone and is now the deadliest outbreak of Ebola virus on record which has killed more than 670 people in Africa out of the 1048 infected and is now taking a toll on the doctors and health care workers battling the deadly disease. Dr Sam Mutooro Muhumuza an Ugandan Doctor died earlier this month who was serving in Monrovia the capital city of Liberia and five nurses have been reported to contracted the disease out of which three could not survive.

Dr Brisbane, a senior doctor is the first Liberian doctor to die on in an outbreak in Liberia's largest hospital last weekend and an American doctor working for an International Aid Organisation is receiving intensive medical treatment in Liberia after he was infected with the deadly Ebola virus while treating patients in the West African nation, a spokeswoman for an aid organisation said on Sunday. 

The latest death is of Patrick Sawyer, a consultant for the Liberian Ministry of Finance who arrived in Nigeria on Tuesday to attend a conference and did not show Ebola symptoms when he boarded the plane, but by the time he arrived in Lagos Nigeria, he was found vomiting and had diarrhea and was immediately detained by health authorities suspecting he might have Ebola. Lagos State health officials in the news have reported that  the hospital where the man died has been cordoned off and about thirty people believed to have had contact with him quarantined. It has been reported that there has not been another recently recorded case of Ebola spreading through air travel. But Nearly 50 other passengers on the flight are being monitored for signs of Ebola but are not being kept in isolation. It is learnt that Sawyer's sister also died of Ebola in Liberia. There is a feeling among that people that if this virus continues to strike like this, then a day may come where passengers from Liberia would be having a hard time in foreign airports.

As per earlier statistics this Ebola virus first appeared in 1976 in two simultaneous outbreaks, in Nzara, Sudan and in Yambuku, Democratic Republic of Congo. The latter was in a village situated near the Ebola River, from which the disease takes its name. These outbreaks in 1976 to 2008 is said to have infected 2,232 people in remote village areas and killed 1503. But in a matter of months, this current outbreak has killed more than one-third as many people.

About 25 doctors and nurses from around the twin cities are cancelling a medical mission trip to Liberia in the fall due to the threat of Ebola. As a result, as many as 200 kids will miss out on life-changing surgeries. The group is called Children's Surgery International. 

The Ebola virus would be terrifying no matter where it struck, it is a disease with no cure that causes headaches and fever, severe diarrhea, vomiting and bleeding and has been known to kill up to 90% of its victims. But in a corner of West Africa, where the disease took hold in recent months, traditional beliefs and superstitions have complicated efforts to prevent the illness

 

HIGHLIGHTS OF EBOLA OUTBREAK 1

In April 2014, it was found in the neighbouring country of Guinea where it is said to have come from BATS (bavali) and people there eat bats. These bats were carriers for Ebola virus. Three to four affected people who had come to Monrovia, the capital city of Liberia for treatment were sent back as this had no cure and on the way back some died in LOFA county in Liberia. This virus has even spread to the neighbouring country of Sierra Leone. Health workers are made to wear something like space suites and attend the suspected patients in a quarantined room. Everyone was in fear to go to the hospital even if they had slight fever, because they thought they would be held under suspicion of Ebola virus. Saudi had banned issuing visas for Liberians for safety reasons. 

According to reports, the virus can kill up to 90% of those infected. Fear, mistrust of Western medicine and difficulties reaching remote areas mean hundreds of potentially infected people have not yet been found says a report published in a local newspaper. It is said that hundreds of West Africans could be carrying the deadly Ebola virus and not know it, potentially infecting hundreds more. At least 1,500 people have not yet been traced who are known to have come into contact with others confirmed or suspected to be infected with the haemorrhagic fever, reported Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), a health NGO. Many more could be moving freely in the three countries battling the virus, Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, but fear of the illness and mistrust of Western medicine means they refuse to come forward to speak to doctors. 

Ebola is transmitted by coming into contact with bodily fluids of an infected person. It has no cure and as many as 90% of its victims die, often from uncontrollable internal and external bleeding. There is also no vaccination against this virus. The current Ebola outbreak in West Africa is literally the worst outbreak of the virus in history and according to the CDC’s best case scenario, it will continue until late October. 

Ebola’s symptoms are like something out of a science-fiction horror story and involve blood coming out of every orifice in an infected individual's body. One bleeds out because the virus has ruined their white blood cells ability to clot blood. It is scary to watch and there is no cure or vaccine. Treatment is purely about hydration and reducing the high Ebola fever while in quarantine, which is required as the virus is highly contagious and spreads through bodily fluids like semen, saliva and sweat, including fingerprints on cellphones. One man in 2012 got Ebola after stealing another man’s phone. This particular strain of the Ebola virus (there are five) is known as the Zaire ebola virus and it usually kills about 79% of the people it infects, though this time around is only killing 60% (for reference, the plague, aka the Black Death, kills about 11%). Early symptoms of the virus come across like the flu and the incubation period (before symptoms start) is 21 days.

People these days are more into prayers and all are of the opinion that only God can save mankind from this deadly virus.