SOUTH KOREA BARS NIGERIANS FROM VARSITY CONFAB

THE death toll from the worst recorded outbreak of Ebola has reached 887, the World Health Organisation has said. It is an increase of 158 since the global health body released figures on July 31.

Alos the South Korea bars Nigerians from varsity confab

The WHO said there have been more than 1,600 cases of Ebola since the disease emerged in Guinea earlier this year. The news comes as Nigeria announced that it had confirmed a second case in Africa’s most populous nation. The patient is a doctor who treated the man who died in Nigeria last month.

According to the WHO, there has been 358 deaths in Guinea, 255 deaths in Liberia, 273 deaths in Sierra Leone and one in Nigeria. In Liberia, the government said the bodies of all Ebola victims must be cremated as fears rose that the disease could be spread by burials in residential areas.

The order came after a tense stand-off erupted over the weekend when health workers tried to bury more than 20 Ebola victims on the outskirts of Monrovia. Authorities said military police officers were called in to help restore order so that the burials could take place. At least 17 bodies have been abandoned on Monrovia’s streets in recent days, health officials said.

Meanwhile, plastic buckets are selling at a record pace to people who fill them with chlorine to disinfect their hands. “This situation has gotten worse. We need our concerted effort, this country needs everybody right now,” information minister Lewis Brown said.

Never before has the disease with a fatality rate of at least 60 per cent become so entrenched in urban population centres in Africa.

South Korea bars Nigerians from varsity confab

A SOUTH Korean university has rescinded an invitation for three Nigerians to attend a conference and a group of volunteers called off a trip to West Africa amid growing concerns about the spread of the deadly Ebola virus.

The Duksung Women’s University in Seoul said in a statement that the school “politely withdrew” its invitation for three Nigerian students to attend an international conference that it is co-hosting with the United Nations starting from Monday. Fears about a possible spread of the deadly virus had prompted a student from the university to post a plea on the country’s presidential office Web site asking for the cancellation of the entire event.

The university has said it was going ahead with the conference to be attended by students, including 28 from Africa.

South Korea on Monday advised people to refrain from visiting Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, while a group of South Korean medical volunteer workers scrapped an annual trip to African countries including Ivory Coast and Ghana scheduled for August.

South Korean bloggers have posted online petitions, including one urging South Korean missionaries working in the region be barred from returning home.

West African leaders agreed last week to take stronger measures to try to bring the worst outbreak of Ebola under control and prevent it spreading outside the region, including steps to isolate rural communities ravaged by the disease.

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