Sierra Leone – one of the countries worst hit by West Africa’s Ebola outbreak – has announced a four-day lockdown to try to tackle the disease.<\/p>\n
From 18 to 21 September people will not be allowed to leave their homes, a senior official said.<\/p>\n
The aim of the move is to allow health workers to isolate new cases to prevent the disease from spreading further.<\/p>\n
The outbreak has killed about 2,100 people in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea and Nigeria in recent months.<\/p>\n
The World Health Organization (WHO) announced on Friday that health workers could be given vaccines as from November, when safety tests are completed.<\/p>\n
More than 20 health workers have lost their lives to the virus in Sierra Leone since the start of the outbreak in March.<\/p>\n
Last month Liberia sealed off a large slum in the capital, Monrovia, for more than a week in an attempt to contain the virus.<\/p>\n
The disease infects humans through close contact with infected animals, including chimpanzees, fruit bats and forest antelope.<\/p>\n
It then spreads between humans by direct contact with infected blood, bodily fluids or organs, or indirectly through contact with contaminated environments.<\/p>\n
Even though the country’s security forces have already been deployed to quarantine certain areas, it remains unclear how such a countrywide lockdown can be enforced, the BBC’s West Africa correspondent Thomas Fessy reports from Senegal.<\/p>\n
The population’s willingness to obey will be key for it to succeed – a forcible implementation is likely to raise human rights issues and could potentially spark violent demonstrations, our correspondent adds.<\/p>\n
A presidential adviser described the measure as aggressive but argued that it was necessary to deal with the spread of Ebola.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, officials in Nigeria have decided to reopen schools in the country from 22 September.<\/p>\n
They were closed as a precaution to prevent the spread of the virus.<\/p>\n
On Friday, the WHO announced that the blood of patients who recovered from Ebola should be used to treat others.<\/p>\n
People produce antibodies in the blood in an attempt to fight off an Ebola infection. The antibodies may be able to help a sick patient’s immune system if they are transferred.<\/p>\n
However, large scale data on the effectiveness of the therapy is lacking.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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