EDIS Number: BH-20140721-44616-LBR
Date / time: 21/07/2014 10:50:49 [UTC]
Event: Biological Hazard
Area: Africa
Country: Liberia
State/County: Bong County
Location: [Phebe Hospital Community, Suakoko District]
Number of Deads: N/A
Number of Injured: N/A
Number of Infected: 4 person(s)
Number of Missing: N/A
Number of Affected: 1 person(s)
Number of Evacuated: N/A
Damage level: N/A
Description:
Four nurses working at the Phebe Hospital in Suakoko, Bong County, have reportedly contracted the Ebola virus, while the test result of the fifth nurse is yet to be released. All four nurses, whose names were not disclosed, have since been transferred to the John F. Kennedy Hospital in Monrovia and the ELWA Hospital in Paynesville where they are being treated and monitored by doctors. Speaking in an interview with the Liberia News Agency (LINA) recently, the Medical Director of Phebe Hospital, Dr. Jefferson Sibley, said the nurses may have contracted the virus from an unidentified female from Lofa County who was admitted at the hospital for treatment on July 1, but died five days later. "We expected this because once it is in Lofa, Margibi, Montserrado and other parts of the country, we knew it would have surfaced here, but we least expected that our health workers would be the victims," Dr. Sibley added. He is therefore calling for strict adherence to all health-related universal preventive measures against the spread of the deadly Ebola virus by both health workers and private citizens. Since the outbreak of the virus in the country, the case of the nurses is the first case of Ebola in Bong County and Phebe Hospital.
