THE BUREAU OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS

Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Monrovia, Liberia

NEWS SUMMARY FOR THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2014

Government’s clarification on the Bushrod Island Quarantine, the infection of another American doctor with the deadly Ebola virus and the recovery of a British nurse from Ebola are the dominant stories among selected stories for today’s news summary.

DOMINANT STORIES

“No Quarantine for Bushrod Island”…Information Minister Discloses

TheHeritage Newspaper reports that Information Minister Lewis Brown has clarified that government has no intention to quarantine Bushrod Island and its surrounding as is being speculated.  Minister Brown emphasized that the true Bushrod Island and its environs will be not quarantined, noting quarantine is a public health tool that will not be necessary if communities observe the preventive  measure outlined by the Health Ministry to eradicate the Ebola virus from the country. The MICAT boss made the clarification in a telephone interview on UNMIL Radio in Monrovia.

Related Captions:“No Quarantine for Bushrod Island”-Min. Brown Assures (INSIGHT Newspaper),“No Quarantine for Bushrod Island”-Min. Brown Assures (WEST AFRICA INFO POST Newspaper)

Third American Infested

The third American infected with Ebola is a Boston area doctor who decided to return to Liberia after the two others fell ill with the deadly virus, the president of his Missionary Group said Wednesday. Dr. Rick Sacra returned to Liberia about a month ago and was delivering babies in the obstetrics unit of the Missionary Group’s Hospital in Liberia, SIM President Bruce Johnson said at a news conference, Sacra was not caring for Ebola patients, Johnson said, New Democrat reports.

Related Captions:Another Doctor Diagnosed With Ebola(West Africa Info Post Newspaper), Ebola Hits Another American In Liberia (FOCUS Newspaper),Another American Doctor Is Ebola Positive (The NEWS),and Latest American Infected With Ebola Virus Identified (FrontPage Africa)

British Man Release After Ebola Treatment

A British nurse infected with Ebola was discharged Wednesday from a London hospital after making a full recovery, the hospital said. William Pooley, 29, contracted the deadly disease while treating Ebola patients in Sierra Leon. The outbreak in West Africa has also hit Liberia, Guinea, Nigeria and Senegal and has killed more than 1,500 people. Pooley was flown back to Britain on August 24, 2014 and was cared for in a special isolation unit at the Royal Free Hospital. He thanked the hospital staff for its successful treatment of his case, saying he was “wonderfully lucky” to have survived, reports the New Dawn Newspaper.

Related Captions:British Ebola Patient Leaves Hospital (Focus Newspaper),British Ebola Patient Discharged (The New Republic Newspaper),and British Ebola Patient Discharged (FrontPage Africa Newspaper)

OTHER STORIES

Ebola Vaccine Human Trial Begins In US

The first of several Ebola Vaccine trials has begun in the US with researchers studying how human immune systems respond to it. Twenty health adult volunteers are being tested at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) IN Maryland. The trial has been brought forward aimed an outbreak of the disease in West Africa that has killed at least 1,500. No volunteers will be infested with the Ebola virus but the vaccine has performed well in primate trials. There is no cure for Ebola but a separate experimental drug, ZMapp, was 100% effective in studies on monkeys, according to researchers who published their data in Nature last week. At least 3,000 people have been infected with the virus. On Friday a fifth country, Senegal, had its first confirmed case, The NEWS writes.

Related Caption:Ebola Vaccine Human Trial Begins In The US(New Republic Newspaper)

Gov’t Adjusts Prices For Rice, Others

The Inquirer Newspaper reports that the Government of Liberia has adjusted the prices of rice, Liberia’s staple food as well as other essential commodities on the Liberian market. The Government’s action comes at a time when businesses are hiking prices due to the outbreak of the Ebola Virus. Information Minister, Lewis Brown, announcing the adjusted price listing yesterday at the Ebola News Briefing held in Monrovia said, “this is not the time for businesses to impose another level of suffering on our people while we are fighting the Ebola disease”. According to the adjusted price listing, a bag of 25kg rice (Bella Lune IR64) be sold for US16.00 in urban areas and US$20.00 in rural area. The 25kg bag of Lady Noora rice is at the Price of US$14.00 in urban and US$19.00 rural areas.

Related Caption:Commerce Ministry Releases Commodity Prices(Daily Observer Newspaper)

U.S. Doctors Ready To Help Liberian Health Workers

In the wake of the deadly Ebola Virus which is ravaging member states of the Mano River Union (MRU) and now Nigeria, a group of concerned leading healthcare practitioners from the medical campus of the University of Massachusetts (UMass) in Worcester and the Boston’s Children Hospital are collaborating with Liberian community organizations in Massachusetts to dispatch a huge consignment of needed protective gear to Liberia,The News reports.

RIA Extols CDC Personnel

The Management of the Roberts International Airport has expressed gratitude to a personnel of the Center and for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) assigned at the Airport for helping with ongoing efforts to prevent transmission of the Ebola Virus Disease through RIA. Dr. Tai Ho Chen who is expected to leave Liberia for the US on Friday has been working here since the outbreak of Ebola in Liberia helping through training of the Ebola response team of RIA and developing procedures and protocols in screening passengers and employees. In brief remarks at a ceremony, RIA General Manager, Abraham T. Simmons praised Dr. Chen for his dedicated and outstanding services rendered the airport, New Democrat Newspaper writes.

UNMIL Drawdown Delayed

Due to the current Ebola outbreak in West Africa that has threatened the entire region, United Nations or UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has told the Security Council that he wants to delay the gradual drawdown of the U.N. Mission in Liberia established in 2003 to help Liberia through a vexing transition from civil war to democracy. According to the UN Radio in Liberia  UNMIL Radio, U.N. efforts to ship equipment, personnel and humanitarian and medical supplies into the region have been hampered by flight restrictions imposed by neighboring governments and large international carriers, including British Airways and Air France, which have suspended flights to Liberia and Sierra Leone, the hardest-hit countries. According to the United Nations, Ebola has rapidly transformed from a major public health emergency to a threat to international peace and security- severely challenging U.N. efforts to support stability in the West African heart of the epidemic. UNMIL Radio said the U.N. officials told Foreign Policy that several governments with police and troops serving in the U.N.Mission were worried about the risk of infection to their nationals, informing U.N. Peacekeeping planners that they were weighing whether to pull out, New Dawn Newspaper writes.

Ebola Kills Several In Virginia As Infected Family Flees

The YED community in Mango Town, Central Virginia on the Bushrod Island was a scene of weeping and sober reflection when an unidentified nurse became one of the latest victims of the deadly Ebola Virus.  According to community residents, the nurse began experiencing symptoms of the virus prior to her death on Tuesday, 2 September. She had reportedly treated a female Ebola patient brought overnight into the YED Community by her children after being pressurized to report to the Ebola Taskforce. The late nurse, who was well known in the YED community in Mango Town, Central Virginia, was contacted by children of the infected woman so that she (the nurse) could administer some medication to their sick mother. In first contact, the nurse was told by the children that their mother had suffered from sugar and so they wanted her to be treated, which the nurse is said to have immediately begun, New Dawn Newspaper reports.

Dr. Kpoto donates 100 beds to MoH

According to New Dawn Newspaper, A Liberian medical practitioner, Dr. Robert Kpoto through his group “International SOS” in collaboration with Arcelor Mittal has donated 100 beds and mattresses to the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare in Monrovia to help with the Ebola fight.

Speaking during the presentation ceremony over the weekend at the Health Ministry compound in Oldest Congo, Dr. Kpoto said the donation is intended to buttress government’s initiatives in the fight. Receiving the items from the International SOS, Deputy Incident Manager at the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, Madam Miatta Z. Gbanya, commended the group for the donation.
 

LRRRC, UN Agencies To Provide Food Aid To Urban Refugees

According to the Executive Director of the Liberia Refugee Repatriation and Resettlement Commission (LRRRC), Cllr. Abla G. Williams, the Commission and its partners are working to provide food assistance to urban refugees in Grand Gedeh County. According to Cllr. Williams, urban refugees are provided international protection, excluding food, because they are not settled in government established refugee camps. The former BIN boss made the disclosure Friday in an interview with journalists at her Sinkor office, saying partners included World Food Program (WFP) and UN Refugee agency, UNHCR. It was recently reported in a local newspaper that more than 600 Ivorian refugees not captured by the UNHCR/LRRRC database and residents in urban communities are not receiving food assistance, and that many of them are surviving by begging for alms, pens the West Africa Info Post Newspaper.

Tough Measures For Profiteers

According to the INSIGHT Newspaper, the Government of Liberia has called on consumers to report cases of arbitrary hike in the prices of basic commodities, including food non-food items in the country. He noted that the government does not need unscrupulous individuals who are profiteering on the deceptive note that basic commodities in the country will soon go out of stock. The Liberian Information Minister addressing the Ministry’s daily press briefing warned that anyone caught in such practice will be treated as “a common criminal”. He said the current stock of rice is expected to arrive in Liberia on September 21 is over 29,000 metric tons.

Poro, Sande Activities Suspended in Bomi

Bomi County Superintendent Samuel Brown has ordered the immediate suspension of the Poro and Sande Society activities in the county. Superintendent Brown said in the wake of the Ebola outbreak in the country, it is necessary to suspend all Poro and Sande activities and concentrate on fighting the disease. According to the INSIGHT Newspaper, speaking Monday in Tubmanburg, Superintendent Brown emphasized that suspending these traditional cultural activities will enable the people to focus on the prevention of the Ebola virus.