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                  New Ebola Treatment Center Opens in Liberia

   by VOA News

   One of the largest Ebola treatment centers opened Friday in Liberia, as
   the death toll from the disease continues to rise in West Africa.

   Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf thanked the international
   community for its part in opening the 200-bed center, which was built
   with help from American soldiers and will be operated by Cuban
   doctors.

   "So today, we applaud you, we honor you, we thank you, for
   demonstrating what it is in the interest of humanity. Reaching across
   the ocean, across the vast lands for most of you to come and to be with
   us as we try to fight this, recognizing that it is a global trek, but
   at the same time it's a national disaster," Sirleaf said.

   "It is heartening to see that we are finally perhaps catching up with
   that boulder, if not in front of it," said the U.S. Ambassador to
   Liberia Deborah Malac. "It [the epidemic] was rolling down the hill at
   a speed that we were never going to catch we thought two months ago.
   But we are starting to make progress. It is important that we not let
   up," she added.

   ''Mali

   In Mali, a two-year-old girl who brought Ebola to the country may have
   had contact with as many as 141 people, 57 of whom have yet to be
   traced, according to health experts concerned the disease could spread
   in Mali and beyond.

   Two people known to have had contact with the girl were suspected of
   having the disease, according to a slide presentation by the World
   Health Organization (WHO) and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and
   Prevention (CDC) seen by Reuters news agency.

   On Friday, the WHO reported the death toll from Ebola has risen to
   4,951, with most of the fatalities in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.
   The agency slightly lowered the number of overall Ebola cases to 13,567
   mainly due to some suspected cases in Guinea turning out to be false.

   New guidelines

   The U.N. agency also issued new guidelines for health workers treating
   Ebola patients, recommending that they double up on gloves and
   completely cover their eyes, mouths and noses.  It said the choice of
   protective gear is much less important than how that gear is put on and
   taken off.

   In the United States, a judge in Maine rejected the state's bid to
   quarantine a nurse who recently returned from treating Ebola patients
   in Sierra Leone. The judge said Kaci Hickox is showing no signs of
   Ebola and is free to travel unrestricted.

   Hickox had refused to comply with the state's quarantine measures,
   going on a  bicycle ride with her boyfriend Thursday. She said the
   quarantine violated her civil rights.

   Ebola has a 21-day incubation period and spreads through contact with
   an infected person's bodily fluids. The deadly virus causes fever,
   bleeding, vomiting and diarrhea.
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   [1]http://www.voanews.com/content/new-ebola-treatment-center-opens-in-l
   iberia/2503817.html

References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/new-ebola-treatment-center-opens-in-liberia/2503817.html