ABUJA – The U.S health authorities on Thursday issued a travel warning for three West African nations struggling with the largest outbreak of deadly Ebola virus. Reports monitored by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja quoted the U.S Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as recommending against non-essential travel to Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
The Director of CDC, Tom Frieden, said the alert was because the ongoing Ebola outbreak posed a potential risk to travellers.
He also announced that CDC would send 50 extra specialists to the affected areas in West Africa. Meanwhile, Presidents Ernest Koroma of Sierra Leone and Johnson Ellen Sirelaff of Liberia, have cancelled plans to attend next U.S-Africa summit in Washington D.C
It was unclear whether the President of Guinea, Alpha Conde, would attend the summit in Washington D.C. A top U.S official in a telephone conversation with journalists earlier on Thursday, said the issue of Ebola would be discussed in detail during side meetings at the summit.
The U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Africa, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said the summit would discuss the spread of the deadly Ebola disease and assistance to affected countries. “I have spoken to all three heads of state to get from them where they see things going and what we can do to better assist them and we will be discussing that during the summit,’’ Thomas-Greenfield said. [eap_ad_2] Fifty African Heads of State and Government have confirmed their attendance at the summit, which has “Investing in the Next Generation’’ as its broad theme. Earlier on Thursday, the World Health Organisation (WHO), said the death toll from the outbreak of Ebola in West Africa has risen to 729.
According to WHO, 57 deaths were reported between July 24 and July 27 in Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone. The WHO also said Nigerian authorities had so far identified 59 people who had come into contact with a Liberian and U.S. citizen who died in Lagos last week after contracting the virus.
Last week, the 40-year old Liberian and U.S citizen, Patrick Sawyer, died in Lagos after flying in from Monrovia, via Lome and Accra. Ebola fever, a contagious disease with no known cure yet, appeared for the first time in a northern town of former Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1976.
Three west African countries, including Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone, have been the most endemic countries since an outbreak of the deadly virus was reported in February in Guinea. (NAN)[eap_ad_3]
