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Liberia closes border with Ebola-hit Guinea
A health worker gets sprayed with disinfectant in an Ebola virus treatment center in Conakry, Guinea, November 17, 2015. PHOTO BY REUTERS/Saliou Samb
22/03/2016
MONROVIA (Reuters) - Liberia closed its border with Guinea on Tuesday as a precaution against Ebola following at least four deaths from the virus in Guinea, Information Minister Lenn Eugene Nangbe said.
The deaths occurred since Feb. 29, while 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," Nangbe told Reuters.
"We are not taking any chance at all," he said.
A team of medics with protective gear had been sent to the border to improve surveillance.
The haemorrhagic fever has killed about 11,300 people in the two countries plus Sierra Leone since late 2013 and it caused global alarm in 2014 as governments and health agencies rushed to help contain the outbreak.
New cases have dwindled virtually to zero but the U.N. World Health Organization warns of flare-ups, or emerging clusters, of new cases.
(Reporting by Alphonso Toweh; Writing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg; Editing by Angus MacSwan)
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