Ebola deaths in Guinea prompt Liberia to close border

Liberia has closed its border with neighbouring Guinea where there have been at least four recent deaths from Ebola. The deaths have occurred since 29 February. Liberia was declared free of new transmissions of the virus in January.

Wednesday, March 23, 2016
Ebola awareness billboard in Monrovia, Guinea. (Photograph: Zoom Dosso/AFP/Getty Images)

Liberia has closed its border with neighbouring Guinea where there have been at least four recent deaths from Ebola.

The deaths have occurred since 29 February. Liberia was declared free of new transmissions of the virus in January.

"We have ordered the border with Guinea closed with immediate effect. The border will remain closed until the situation in Guinea improves,” said Lenn Eugene Nagbe, the Liberian information minister.

"We are not taking any chance at all.”

A team of medics with protective gear had been sent to the border to improve surveillance, Liberian authorities said.

Ebola, a haemorrhagic fever, has killed about 11,300 people in the two countries and Sierra Leone since late 2013. There was global alarm in 2014 as governments and health agencies rushed to help contain the outbreak.

New cases have dwindled to almost zero but the UN World Health Organisation has warned of "flare-ups”, or emerging clusters of new cases.

Agencies