• Sierra Leone Cancels Public Christmas, New Year's Celebrations to Curtail Ebola

    Only about 10 percent of all people who are living in Sierra Leone are Christians who will be celebrating this holiday season, but the government has already put necessary restrictions on the festivities due to the continuing Ebola outbreak. Sierra Leone is now the hardest-hit country, surpassing the illness and death that even Liberia has seen, and its leaders are scrambling to find ways to keep Ebola from spreading. That has led them to determine that public Christmas and New Year's celebrations are now banned. People are now forbidden from gathering in groups to celebrate as they normally would. Military personnel will once again take to the streets to make sure that groups of revelers are not gathering together, which would basically intensify the risk of spreading the virus to each other. This is just one more way the everyday lives of the people of West Africa have been disrupted by this epidemic. As of Dec. 10, Sierra Leone had recorded 8,000 cases of Ebola and nearly 1,900 deaths. In West Africa as a whole, more than 18,000 people have been infected, resulting in more than 6,500 deaths. Those numbers are pretty harrowing, but the truth is many at the World Health Organization feared they would be far higher by now.

  • Dr. Martin Salia Dies of Adavanced Ebola Symptoms Despite Testing Negative for Virus Last Week

    Sadly, Nebraska Medical Center has confirmed that Dr. Martin Salia has died after a fast-moving battle against the Ebola virus. The surgeon had been treating patients at several facilities in Sierra Leone when he became ill himself. As early as Nov. 6, Salia had tested negative for the deadly virus, but by Saturday, Nov. 15, he was transferred to Nebraska in deteriorating condition. A press conference surrounding Salia's case was scheduled to take place earlier this morning. In the meantime, Nebraska has confirmed that it had treated Salia with a blood plasma transfusion and Zmapp therapy that has worked on several other patients. The surgeon had reportedly arrived at the facility Saturday already showing signs of kidney and respiratory failure, neither of which he was able to rebound from.

  • Dr. Martin Salia is 'Extremely Critical' While Being Treated in Nebraska for Ebola Virus

    The United States was Ebola-free for a few short days before the news broke that Dr. Martin Salia was being flown to Nebraska from Sierra Leone. As it turns out, Salia is a citizen of Sierra Leone but lives in Maryland, was working as a general surgeon at Kissy United Methodist Hospital in the country's capital. Kissy is not an Ebola treatment unit but Salia has also apparently worked in at least three other facilities that are. It's still unclear when or how Salia came into contact with the deadly virus, but five other doctors in Sierra Leone have not only contracted the disease, but also were killed by it.
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