While the Liberian government may be slow to post news on its own website (see post just below), it's providing some very current information to the local media. Via The New Dawn: To stop Ebola: Gov’t bans monkey meat, others. Excerpt:
The Government of Liberia has announced a number of measures to curtail the spread of the deadly Ebola virus, a day after it confirmed the first two cases of the virus here.
Among the preventive measures are avoiding direct contacts with body fluids of infected persons, which include having sex with suspected persons, not eating dead bush animals and being very careful in handling fresh bush meat.
Others include avoiding bathing dead bodies of suspected patients, eating plums/mangoes and other fruits partially eaten by bats; avoid eating monkeys, bats, and bamboos.
“The Ministry of Health and Social Welfare wishes to confirm that two out of the seven samples sent for laboratory analysis of the Ebola Virus in Liberia are positive, indicating that Liberia now has an outbreak of the virus,” the ministry said in a statement issued Monday.
The two Liberian cases are sisters, one of whom had recently returned from Guinea to Foyah, a district in the northern Liberian town of Lofa, Information Minister Lewis Brown told this paper via mobile phone Monday.
One of the sisters, the one who returned from Guinea, died later in Foyah, while the other sister who had earlier taken care of her deceased sister returned to Firestone, where she resides via Chicken-Soup Factory, a community in Gardnerville, outside Monrovia and was later taken to Harbel, Firestone and received by her husband at a taxi rank. This was after she had spent one night with the taxi driver’s family.
“We sent 7 samples or specimens for testing, two came back positive,” Brown explains. He said the seven samples included the two sisters. He said Government has identified the husband of the sister who returned to Harbel, Firestone, adding that she has a household of four.
Mr. Brown said the government has also identified the taxi driver who took the infected lady from Foyah and his family. The driver, he added, is assisting in the identification of other passengers that were in the taxi from Foyah. The children of the infected lady, he said, are also being monitored as the lady has been quarantined.
Click through to the news story to read the extensive statement from the government. You can also see a relevant report on Mike Coston's Avian Flu Diary.
