Troops deploy in Sierra Leone, Liberia to try to stop Ebola spread

Reuters ^ | 8/4/2014 | Umaru Fofana and Clair MacDougall

[mojito]

FREETOWN/MONROVIA - Hundreds of troops deployed in Sierra Leone and Liberia on Monday under an emergency plan to fight the worst outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus, which has killed more than 826 people across West Africa.

Panic among local communities, which have attacked health workers and threatened to burn down isolation wards, prompted regional governments to impose tough measures last week, including the closure of schools and quarantine of the remote forest region hardest hit by the disease.

[....]

Long convoys of military trucks ferried troops and medical workers on Monday to Sierra Leone's far east, where the density of cases is highest. Military spokesman Colonel Michael Samoura said the operation, code named Octopus, involved around 750 military personnel.

Troops will gather in the southeastern town of Bo before travelling to isolated communities to implement quarantines, he added. Healthcare workers will be allowed to come and go freely, and the communities will be kept supplied with food.

In neighbouring Liberia, President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf and ministers held a crisis meeting on Sunday on putting in place a series of anti-Ebola measures as police contained infected communities in the northern Lofa county.

Police were setting up checkpoints and roadblocks for key entrance and exit points to those infected communities and every resident would be stopped. Nobody would be allowed to exit quarantined communities. Troops were fanning out across Liberia to help to deal with the emergency.

[CorporateStepsister]

I believe we have seen a massive breakthrough and whoever created this serum will go down in history, deservedly so. Being alive (hopefully past this epidemic) in these times is interesting.

[CorporateStepsister]

Maybe their skill in terrorizing the population will end up being good training in keeping the panic in check.

[null and void]

Shoot that virus!

Bring Out Your Dead

Post to me or FReep mail to be on/off the Bring Out Your Dead ping list.

The purpose of the “Bring Out Your Dead” ping list (formerly the “Ebola” ping list) is very early warning of emerging pandemics, as such it has a high false positive rate.

So far the false positive rate is 100%.

At some point we may well have a high mortality pandemic, and likely as not the “Bring Out Your Dead” threads will miss the beginning entirely.

*sigh* Such is life, and death...

[Myrddin]

Spattered, Ebola infected blood is the end game when you bring firearms into the mix. Brilliant. I suspect we are in the early stages of a global "whack-a-mole" that will get beyond control fairly quickly.

[Veto!]

So, if Ebola doesn’t kill Liberians, their own troops will?

Sounds like the beginning of a civil war.

[Veto!]

Spattered, Ebola infected blood is the end game when you bring firearms into the mix. Brilliant.

'Way too graphic and also far too true.

[Ancesthntr]

I agree. Hopefully the same or a similar process can be used to cure/ameliorate other hemorragic fevers, as they are truly the stuff of nightmares. It is, indeed, truly fascinating to live in these times of rapid technological progress. I look forward to cloned hearts, lungs, livers, etc., and a possible cure for Alzheimers and many forms of cancer...but let's get through the Obola Ebola first.

[Smokin' Joe]

Ping...

[Black Agnes]

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Ebola_Outbreak_2014.svg&lang=en

It’s gone exponential.

[redgolum]

It is only a 3 log, when it hits 4 or 5 log then it’s exponential.

Of course, that could be in days

[Black Agnes]

I’m also mentally adding in the numbers that aren’t included in that. it’s not like healthcare here where a dead body automatically gets recorded. Lots of anecdotes of bodies just lying about over there now. Who knows what the number of dead really is at this point.

[Myrddin]

I've seen articles in other places stating they are throwing the dead bodies in the streets. The wild animals will feed on the carcasses and spread it further.