Sierra Leone officials confirmed to world news outlets the death of a 67-year-old woman from Ebola and the quarantine of the entire village where she was living.
“Over 970 people are being monitored under quarantine as there is information that they had had some contact with the deceased woman who tested positive after her death,” the district Ebola response office said in a report distributed to reporters.
“From those under quarantine, 48 are considered as high risk and they are in various holding centers in the district and not treatment centers, as none of them have exhibited any signs and symptoms of Ebola.”
Local officials say that the woman lived in the village of Sella Kafta and was sick for 10 days without any officials being alerted to her symptoms.
Without any further victims of the disease, the quarantine will last three weeks.
A BBC correspondent on the ground the Sierra Leone said the government is using a stricter quarantine than in previous cases. Residents are being prohibited from moving from house to house.
Soldiers and police are surrounding the town and allowing no one but authorized government officials and health workers to enter or leave the area.
A nurse who worked on Ebola patients in Sierra Leone who returned to the U.S. and complained about mandatory quarantine is now flaunting a voluntary quarantine.
Kaci Hickox, 33, had been working in Sierra Leone as part of Doctors Without Borders. New Jersey officials ordered her into quarantine when she returned to the United States and she hired lawyers to challenge the ruling. She eventually was allowed to leave for her home state of Maine if she agreed to a voluntary quarantine.
Hickok said she would flaunt any quarantine order because she believes there’s no risk of exposing anyone to Ebola because she’s not sick.
She left her home to take a bike ride with her boyfriend this morning in full view of national media cameras. Her lawyer said that because Hickox didn’t want to “freak people out” she didn’t ride through the center of town.
“Since there’s no court order, she can be out in public,” Siegel said. “Even if people disagree with her position, I would hope they respect the fact that she’s taking into account the fear, which is based on misinformation about the way the disease is transmitted.”
Hickox and her lawyer claim the orders for quarantine are just politically motivated.
Albanian officials are downplaying the fact that five of 40 illegal immigrants caught sneaking into the country on Thursday are showing signs of being infected with Ebola.
Officials say that the immigrants arrived from Eritrea by sneaking into Europe through Greece. The immigrants have been taken into quarantine at a hospital about 85 miles from Italy’s closest port.
The revelation of the possible infections comes hours after finding out that one person in Montenegro has been forced into quarantine with symptoms of Ebola. The person reportedly had entered legally into Montenegro from a West African nation.
European nations are starting to announce steps to protect their countries from Ebola. Serbia has announced 21-day medical surveillance for anyone who enters the country from Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea or Nigeria.
Guinea has declared a nationwide public health emergency because of the current outbreak. Liberia announced they have obtained doses of the experimental Ebola drug ZMapp and have started giving it to victims.