Lack Of Skills Hampering Ebola War –-Aid Agency

The precautions follow measures from commercial airlines such as Kenya Airways and Gambia Bird which have suspended flights to affected countries, despite new testing procedures at airports. The United States and several European countries have also advised against non-essential travel to the region.

Guinea’s President Alpha Conde met with airlines on Wednesday in an attempt to persuade them to resume normal service to the country. “No Guinean has left the country to export Ebola elsewhere. Even the WHO has recognised that Guinea’s measures are sufficient,” he said.

The WHO said on Thursday it would convene talks early next month on potential treatments and vaccines to contain the outbreak.

Ebola has struck hardest in countries with health care systems ill-equipped to cope with an epidemic.

A ministry of health report in Liberia, the country where infection is rising fastest, showed 60 new suspected, probable and confirmed cases for just one day on Aug. 19. Two of them were health workers.

In an indication of the strain on local populations, security forces in Monrovia fired live rounds and tear gas on Wednesday as crowds sought to break quarantine restrictions.

A 15-year-old-boy receiving treatment for gun shot wounds later died, the medical director of the hospital treating him said on Thursday.

The WHO said on Thursday that an hemorrhagic illness has killed at least 70 people in Democratic Republic of Congo but denied that the illness was Ebola.

Ireland’s health service said it was testing the body of a person, who had died after recently returning from Africa, for the Ebola virus.