BBC News
The World Health Organisation is set to hold emergency talks to discuss the Ebola epidemic.
The meeting in Geneva will examine screening measures at borders and consider whether stricter travel regulations should be put in place.
New rules in the US require travellers from the worst affected countries to arrive at one of five airports.
A curfew has been imposed in a town in Sierra Leone after two people were shot dead in riots on Tuesday.
The current outbreak of the virus has already killed more than 4,500 people - mostly in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
Enhanced screening
The WHO has faced criticism it reacted too slowly to the spread of the disease.
Its emergency committee will meet to discuss Ebola for the third time with the aim of assessing the efforts so far to contain and control the virus.
Some travellers in the US will have their temperatures checked for signs of a fever
The riots in Sierra Leone's town of Koidu began as protests against attempts to place an elderly woman, said to be 90 years old, under quarantine.
The woman has now died but it is not clear whether she actually had Ebola, the BBC's Umaru Fofana reports from the capital, Freetown.
New rules are coming into force in the US requiring air passengers from Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea to travel via O'Hare in Chicago, JFK, Newark, Washington's Dulles or Atlanta airports, where they will undergo enhanced screening.
They will have their temperatures checked as part of other protocols despite experts warning such moves are unlikely to have an impact.
The new security measures come as public concern grows in the US, where three people have been infected and one person has died from the virus.
How not to catch Ebola:
• Avoid direct contact with sick patients as the virus is spread through contaminated body fluids
• Wear protective cover for eyes
• Clothing and clinical waste should be incinerated and any medical equipment that needs to be kept should be decontaminated
• People who recover from Ebola should abstain from sex or use condoms for three months
Ebola basics
First batches of an experimental vaccine are also due to arrive in Switzerland on Wednesday, the BBC's Imogen Foulkes reports from Geneva.
The jab, developed by Canada's public health agency, combines fragments of the Ebola virus with a non-fatal virus and could trigger the immune system to produce the necessary antibodies.
However, a fully tested and approved vaccine is not expected to become available for months or possibly years, our correspondent adds.
In other developments
• NBC freelance cameraman Ashoka Mukpo - who contracted Ebola in West Africa - has been declared free of the virus and will leave hospital in the US state of Nebraska on Wednesday
• UK International Development Secretary Justine Greening is in Sierra Leone to assess the impact of the government's $200m (£125m) aid package
* Doctors in Spain said a second round of tests showed Teresa Romero, who became the first person to contract Ebola outside West Africa, was completely clear of the virus. The nurse fell ill after treating two infected patients in a Madrid hospital
Ebola virus disease (EVD)
• Symptoms include high fever, bleeding and central nervous system damage
• Spread by body fluids, such as blood and saliva
• Fatality rate can reach 90% - but current outbreak has mortality rate of about 70%
• Incubation period is two to 21 days
• There is no proven vaccine or cure
• Supportive care such as rehydrating patients who have diarrhoea and vomiting can help recovery
• Fruit bats, a delicacy for some West Africans, are considered to be virus's natural host
No comments:
Post a Comment