DEATH TOLL HITS 672 IN WEST AFRICA
July 28, 2014 – Serving In Mission (SIM)/Sameritan Pulse Personnel Coordinator, Nancy Writebol an American aid worker has tested positive to the dread Ebola Virus Decease (EVD), her employer has said. Writebol assists the SIM/Samaritan Purse team treating Ebola patients in Monrovia.
She is contracting the EVD just about few days after the organisation announced that the American Doctor, Kent Brantly had been infected with the disease.
Writebol has been living in Monrovia with her husband David since August 2013. She is from Charlotte, North America.
Brantly, the medical director for SIM Ebola Consolidated Case Management Center in Monrovia, has been in the country since October.
“When the Ebola outbreak hit, he took on responsibilities with our Ebola direct clinical treatment response, but he was serving in a missionary hospital in Liberia prior to his work with Ebola patients,” spokesperson for the agency, Melissa Strickland said.
This is coming even as the Liberian Government has announced that it is closing its borders to prevent further spread of the deceased. A Liberian, Patrick Sawyer died in Lagos, Nigeria after falling ill aboard a Liberian plane on his way to Calabar, Cross River State forcing the crew to drop him in Lagos for medical attention. He died Thursday July 24 in a hospital in Lagos. He has been cremated.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation(WHO) says new cases and deaths attributable to EVD continue to be reported by the Ministries of Health in the three West African countries of Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone.
According to the agency, between 21 and 23 July 2014, 108 new cases of EVD, including 12 deaths, were reported from the three countries as follows: Guinea, 12 new cases and 5 deaths; Liberia, 25 new cases with 2 deaths; and Sierra Leone, 71 new cases and 5 death adding that the numbers include laboratory-confirmed, probable, and suspect cases and deaths of EVD.
“As of 23 July 2014, the cumulative number of cases attributed to EVD in the three countries stands at 1 201, including 672 deaths. The distribution and classification of the cases are as follows: Guinea, 427 cases (311 confirmed, 99 probable, and 17 suspected) and 319 deaths (208 confirmed, 99 probable, and 12 suspected); Liberia, 249 cases (84 confirmed, 84 probable, and 81 suspected) and 129 deaths (60 confirmed, 50 probable, and 19 suspected); and Sierra Leone, 525 cases (419 confirmed, 56 probable, and 50 suspected) and 224 deaths (188 confirmed, 33 probable, and 3 suspected).
