#News: Liberians Fill Churches In Defiance Of Official Ebola Warnings

[HuffingtonPost]

By Clair MacDougall                

MONROVIA, Aug 10 (Reuters) - Liberians packed churches in  the capital Monrovia on Sunday to seek solace from an outbreak  of the deadly Ebola virus, defying official warnings to avoid  public gatherings to try to contain an epidemic that has killed  nearly 1,000 people in West Africa.                

With its creaking healthcare system completely overrun,  Liberia declared a state of emergency last week to tackle the  highly contagious and incurable disease, which has also stricken  neighboring Sierra Leone, Guinea and Nigeria.                

People still flocked to sing and pray in churches in the  ramshackle ocean-front capital, many of them comparing Ebola to  the brutal civil war that ravaged the country between 1989 and  2003, killing nearly a quarter of a million people.                

"Everyone is so afraid," said Martee Jones Seator at Saint  Peter's Lutheran Church. "Ebola is not going to shake our faith  in any way ... because we've been through difficult times."                

The World Health Organization (WHO) has said that the  world's worst outbreak of Ebola will likely continue for months,  as the region's healthcare systems struggle to cope, and it has  appealed for funding and emergency medical staff.                

With the disease now in four African countries - following  the death in Nigeria last month of a U.S. citizen who arrived  from Liberia - the WHO on Friday classified the epidemic as an  international health emergency.                

A WHO medical ethics committee is due to discuss next week  the use of experimental drugs in tackling the outbreak after two  U.S. aid workers appeared to show some improvement after being  treated with ZMapp, a drug developed by California-based Mapp  Biopharmaceutical.                

British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline said on Sunday a  clinical trial of another experimental vaccine was due to start  shortly. But even if it is fast-tracked, the new treatment would  not be ready for deployment before next year.                

Spain on Sunday authorized the use of the ZMapp on  75-year-old Spanish priest Miguel Pajares - the first European  infected -  who was evacuated to Madrid last week after  contracting the virus working in a hospital in Liberia. A  Congolese nun who worked with him died on Saturday in Monrovia.                                

Outside churches in the capital, plastic buckets with taps  containing chlorinated water sat on stools, allowing worshippers  to disinfect their hands. Inside, pastors told their  congregations to follow instructions from health workers, some  of whom have been attacked by locals terrified by the disease.                

"We are in trouble here. We are in trouble," Reverend Marcus  MacKay, dressed in a green gown, said before the altar. "But you  know what? There is no way this devil is going to do its work!"                                

STARTED IN FORESTS OF GUINEA                

Scientists believe that West Africa's first Ebola epidemic  began in early December near Gueckedou in the remote forest  region of southeastern Guinea, near the border with Liberia and  Sierra Leone. Yet it is not clear how the virus jumped from  central Africa, where it is regarded as endemic.                

National emergencies have since been declared in Sierra  Leone, Liberia and Nigeria, which now has seven confirmed cases  of Ebola. Guinea said on Saturday it was  tightening health checks at border crossings.                

With healthcare workers unprepared to cope with the virus -  which initially presents symptoms similar to malaria - many have  died, exacerbating chronic staffing problems. Liberia alone has  lost at least three doctors to the virus and 32 health workers.                

The coordinator of Medecins Sans Frontieres in Liberia,  Lindis Hurum, has called the situation in the country  "catastrophic". President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf on Saturday  pledged up to $18 million to help protect workers, fund more  ambulances and to increase the number of treatment centers.                

Burkina Faso became the latest African country on Sunday to  announce stringent airport health checks and border controls to  protect itself from infection. Zambia said on Saturday it would  ban its citizens from traveling to countries hit by the virus.                

In Senegal, which borders Guinea to the north, a man had  been isolated in the northern region of Matam while tests were  conducted for Ebola, the APS state news agency reported.                

Tests on suspected cases in Hong Kong, Canada and Saudi  Arabia in recent days have all proved negative.      (Reporting by Daniel Flynn; Editing by Stephen Powell)
Source: huffingtonPost