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Sierra Leone president visits Ebola epicentre
Medical staff working with Medecins sans Frontieres (MSF) put on their protective gear before entering an isolation area at the MSF Ebola treatment centre in Kailahun, July 20, 2014. PHOTO BY REUTERS/Tommy Trenchard
28/07/2014
FREETOWN (Reuters) - Sierra Leone's president visited the epicentre of an Ebola outbreak on Monday as West African leaders stepped up efforts to contain the spread of the deadly virus.
It was Ernest Bai Koroma's first visit to the northeastern district of Kailahun since the start of the epidemic that has killed some 672 people in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), making it the worst outbreak ever.
Sierra Leone has the highest number of Ebola cases, at 525, surpassing neighbouring Guinea where the virus was first reported in February. A Liberian man died of the disease in Nigeria last week.
The president headed to Kailahun by helicopter after a prayer session at the national stadium to mark the end of the Muslim month of fasting.
Koroma, a Christian, told the Muslim congregation that he would visit Sheik Umar Khan, the country's leading Ebola doctor who tested positive for the virus last week.
Khan is now a patient at an Ebola treatment centre run by the French charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in Kailahun. Several other medical staff have contracted the disease, including two American doctors working in Liberia.
Koroma said on Saturday the government planned to "intensify activities and interventions in containing the disease" with a view to ending the outbreak within 60 to 90 days.
The new strategy will focus on contact tracing, surveillance, communications and social mobilization, social services, logistics and supplies, he said.
(Reporting by Umaru Fofana; Writing by Bate Felix; Editing by Daniel Flynn and Robin Pomeroy)
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