Liberia- West Point, Monrovia neighborhood quarantined - Quarantine lifted Aug. 29

[Shiloh]

Source: http://www.trust.org/item/20140820103837-yq591/?source=dpagehead


Liberian police fire tear gas to disperse protest over Ebola quarantine
Source: Reuters - Wed, 20 Aug 2014 11:30 GMT
Author: Reuters

By Clair MacDougall

MONROVIA, Aug 20 (Reuters) - Police in the Liberian capital Monrovia fired tear gas on Wednesday to disperse a stone-throwing crowd agitating to leave a neighbourhood placed under quarantine because of the Ebola virus, witnesses said.

Liberian authorities introduced a nationwide curfew on Tuesday and put the neighbourhood - West Point - under quarantine. The rundown area has been hit by Ebola, which has killed more than 1,200 people in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia and five in Nigeria...

 

[Shiloh]

Re: Liberia- West Point, Monrovia neighborhood quarantined

Re: Liberia- West Point, Monrovia neighborhood quarantined

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/21/world/africa/ebola-outbreak-liberia-quarantine.html?_r=0

Clashes Erupt as Liberia Imposes Quarantine to Curb Ebola
By NORIMITSU ONISHIAUG. 20, 2014

...Soldiers repelled the surging crowd with live rounds, driving hundreds of young men back into the neighborhood, a slum of tens of thousands in Monrovia known as West Point.

One teenager in the crowd, Shakie Kamara, 15, lay on the ground near the barricade, his right leg apparently wounded by a bullet from the melee. ?Help me,? pleaded Mr. Kamara, who was barefoot and wore a green Philadelphia Eagles T-shirt.

Lieut. Col. Abraham Kromah, the national police?s head of operations, arrived a few minutes later.

?This is messed up,? he said, looking at the teenager while complaining about the surging crowd. ?They injured one of my police officers. That?s not cool. It?s a group of criminals that did this. Look at this child. God in heaven help us.?...

 

[GardenSpider]

Re: Liberia- West Point, Monrovia neighborhood quarantined

Re: Liberia- West Point, Monrovia neighborhood quarantined

Interesting article, well worth reading the entire piece.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/ebola-...antine-in-west-point-slum-will-fail-1.2744292

Ebola outbreak: Why Liberia's quarantine in West Point slum will fail
A relic of the Middle Ages, quarantines do more harm than good

Medical experts say that mass quarantine is rarely if ever effective in stemming the spread of a contagion like Ebola, and the move by Liberia to cordon off a sprawling slum is likely to do more harm than good.

"It's a measure that basically goes back to the Middle Ages. It's a reflection really of ignorance and panic," said Dr. Richard Schabas, formerly chief medical officer for Ontario and now in that role in Hastings and Prince Edward counties.

"Mass quarantine of this kind really has no place at all in disease control."

The concept of quarantine "has an intuitive appeal to a layperson, and leaders of these countries are lay people," adds Dr. William Schaffner, a Vanderbilt University professor of preventive medicine.

"But the practical aspects of implementation are very substantial and there aren't any data that would tell you securely that this works."

What's more, he suggests, the measure will also likely foment further public mistrust of the government.

..snip?

"In Liberia, at the present time, they have more soldiers than they have doctors," observes Dr. Schaffner. "So they're using the resources that they have in the hopes that it will do some good."

 

[Emily]

Re: Liberia- West Point, Monrovia neighborhood quarantined

Re: Liberia- West Point, Monrovia neighborhood quarantined

They have other resources - NGO offices, embassies, gated communities or the most useful - luxury hotels could have been commandeered and used as quarantine/treatment centers. All these facilities were described as being located a short 25 minute walk from the slums where the failed center was set up.

 

[Shiloh]

Re: Liberia- West Point, Monrovia neighborhood quarantined

Re: Liberia- West Point, Monrovia neighborhood quarantined

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/29/w...tal-an-ebola-outbreak-like-no-other.html?_r=0

As Ebola Grips Liberia?s Capital, a Quarantine Sows Social Chaos
By NORIMITSU ONISHIAUG. 28, 2014

MONROVIA, Liberia ? Some people are swimming in and out of the Ebola quarantine zone in this seaside capital. One man slips out every day to reach his job at a Western embassy. Another has turned his living room into a tollbooth, charging others to escape through his apartment at the edge of the cordoned area. Countless others have used a different method: bribing their way out with fees that soldiers determine according to a person?s appearance, circumstances and even gender...

 

[Emily]

Re: Liberia- West Point, Monrovia neighborhood quarantined

Re: Liberia- West Point, Monrovia neighborhood quarantined

That Western embassy must pay a really low wage - and there are many working class people living in that slum under what sounds like an ineffective quarantine if someone has a little bit of money to bribe their way out to go to work.

 

[Emily]

Re: Liberia- West Point, Monrovia neighborhood quarantined

Re: Liberia- West Point, Monrovia neighborhood quarantined

http://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2014/08/29/senegal-confirms-its-1st-case-of-ebola

Liberia to lift cordon around slum neighborhood sealed off to stop Ebola's spread
Associated Press Aug. 29, 2014 | 4:26 p.m. EDT

...

Information Minister Lewis Brown says lifting the quarantine Saturday morning will not mean there is no Ebola in the West Point Slum.

But authorities feel confident they can screen for the sick and that the community now actively fighting the disease...

 

[JimO]

Re: Liberia- West Point, Monrovia neighborhood quarantined

Re: Liberia- West Point, Monrovia neighborhood quarantined

http://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2014/08/29/senegal-confirms-its-1st-case-of-ebola

Now that they people in West Point have experienced quarantine, I fear many will disperse to avoid future confinement. It would have been better if they had never instituted the quarantine.

 

[GardenSpider]

Re: Liberia- West Point, Monrovia neighborhood quarantined

Re: Liberia- West Point, Monrovia neighborhood quarantined

Now that they people in West Point have experienced quarantine, I fear many will disperse to avoid future confinement. It would have been better if they had never instituted the quarantine.

Some encouraging news from West Point. :applause:

Calm After Ebola Storm: Quarantined Neighborhood Opens Up
http://www.npr.org/blogs/goatsandso...ebola-storm-quarantined-neighborhood-opens-up

snip
?..But he believes there's been a significant change. He says that West Pointers, some of whom have denied the existence of Ebola, have come to understand the severity of the outbreak. "What I saw actually impressed me," Brown said. "I saw a community now literally rallied against Ebola."

snip

 

[GardenSpider]

Re: Liberia- West Point, Monrovia neighborhood quarantined - Quarantine lifted Aug. 29

Here is an interview posted on NPR with Liberia's Information Minister as he tries to explain himself regarding the decision to quarantine West Point. It's an interesting read as he takes us through how the epidemic unfolded from his perspective.

Liberia's Information Minister Admits Mistakes, Defends Actions
http://www.npr.org/blogs/goatsandso...tion-minister-admits-mistakes-defends-actions