Liberia declares emergency state over Ebola

Liberia’s President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has declared a state of emergency in the country amid an outbreak of Ebola, which has plagued several West African states.

In a televised speech on Wednesday, Sirleaf declared the state of emergency for a minimum of 90 days, which will be presented to parliament on Thursday.

The Liberian president warned that extraordinary measures are needed “for the very survival of the state,” adding that some civil rights may have to be suspended due to the epidemic.

The announcement comes days after Liberians took to the streets to protest the leaving of bodies for days in the streets and houses of the Ebola-hit country.

There is currently no known cure for Ebola, which is a form of hemorrhagic fever whose symptoms are diarrhea, vomiting, bleeding, and fever.

The virus spreads through direct contact with infected blood, feces or sweat. It can also be spread through sexual contact or the unprotected handling of contaminated corpses.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said in a statement on Wednesday that Ebola has killed at least 286 people in Liberia alone so far. Its outbreak has also hit Guinea, Sierra Leone and Nigeria, killing 932 people. Liberia currently has the most reported cases of Ebola out of any country while Guinea still has the highest death toll at 363.

Global health experts at the WHO are meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, to discuss a response to the outbreak. The meeting, expected to last two days, will decide whether to declare a global health emergency.

Ebola was first discovered in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1976 in an outbreak that killed 280 people.