Liberia’s chief medical officer, Bernice Dahn, has put herself in quarantine after one of her assistants died from the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD), the government said on Saturday, September 27, 2014.
Dahn, who is the countries deputy health minister, is the latest senior West African medical official to be directly affected by an outbreak of Ebola, which has killed over 3,000 people as it spreads across most of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
“She has placed herself under self observation due to the fact that her special assistant contracted the virus,” Isaac Jackson, Liberia’s deputy information minister, told Reuters.
The government praised Dahn’s decision to come forward to be monitored after potentially coming into contact with the disease, Jackson said.
“If everyone were to do what Dr. Dahn has done, Liberia would be free of Ebola,” he said.
The World Bank on Thursday, September 26, 2014 announced it would give another $170 million to help contain the spread of the Ebola virus in West Africa.
The funds will be used to improve the quality of healthcare in the regions most affected by the virus in West African countries – Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
The World Bank had previously approved $230 million for the three countries, where resources and health systems have been strained by the pandemic.
The virus has claimed close to 3,000 lives since it’s worst outbreak ever since its discovery four decades ago.
Nigeria was hit with the virus late July after an infected Liberian man, Patrick Sawyer brought the virus to the country.
The ministry of health has announced that there is no case of Ebola in Nigeria and every patient that was under observation at the isolation wards have been discharged.
