Angry residents of West Point, the biggest slum in Liberia's capital city Monrovia, attacked a quarantine center for Ebola patients on Saturday causing alarm as the raiders looted items that were contaminated with blood of patients. The raid also resulted in Ebola-positive individuals mingling with the crowd, which could potentially lead to more people contracting the infectious and fatal virus.
In an apparent effort to prevent such incidence from happening again and in order to prevent the further spread of the disease, Liberia's president implemented a curfew and ordered to quarantine West Point and Dolo Town in Margibi County.
On Tuesday, Liberian President Johnson Sirleaf said that a curfew will be observed from 9 a.m. to 6 a.m. starting Wednesday, Aug. 20. All entertainment centers and video centers were also ordered to be closed by 6 p.m. Sirleaf likewise announced that WestPoint and Dolo Town will be quarantined and that security forces will be in place to ensure that no one goes in or out of these communities.
"We have been unable to control the spread due to continued denials, cultural burying practices, disregard for the advice of health workers and disrespect for the warnings by the government," Sirleaf said. "As a result and due to the large population concentration the disease has spread widely in Monrovia and environs."
Liberia had the highest number of Ebola-related deaths among the four West African countries battling with the hemorrhagic fever. Latest figures from the World Health Organization show that Liberia had 834 cases and 466 deaths due to Ebola since the outbreak started. Guinea had 543 cases and 394 deaths, Sierra Leone had 848 cases and 365 deaths, and Nigeria had 15 cases and 4 deaths.
No treatment is yet available for Ebola albeit WHO has green-lighted the use of untested drugs to treat individuals who have contracted the virus, which has so far killed more than 2,200 individuals in West Africa.
An experimental drug called ZMapp is currently being given to three African health workers who contracted Ebola and all of the three patients apparently respond positively to the treatment as medical professionals reported they are showing signs of improvement. The drug, however, remains inaccessible for other patients as its California-based manufacturer Mapp Biopharmaceutical already said that the scarce supply of the drug has already been exhausted.
Health experts also said that it isn't yet clear if the drug is indeed effective as it has not yet been tested on humans.
