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Liberia vows to prosecute national who carried Ebola to US

02 October 2014 23:29 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. The Liberian government said the man who has recently been diagnosed of carrying the Ebola virus to the United States will be prosecuted upon his recovery and return to the country, APA reports quoting AA.

Liberia Airports Authority chairman Beyan Kesselee told reporters on Thursday that Thomas Eric Duncan will face prosecution for risking the lives of others and violating emergency health regulations.

Kesselee said the conduct of Duncan and the late Patrick Sawyer, who similarly gave Nigeria its first Ebola case, posed serious embarrassment to the West African country.

Speaking to the Information Ministry’s regular press briefing in Monrovia, Kesselee asserted that Duncan had shown no symptoms of the Ebola disease when he departed Liberia to the United States.

Before departing, Duncan reportedly helped take a pregnant woman who was seriously sick to a nearby health center for treatment. The pregnant woman later died and was buried.

Health authorities in Liberia say Duncan may have contracted the virus from the late woman.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed Tuesday that a Liberian patient at a hospital in Dallas, Texas, was diagnosed with the Ebola virus. It is the first case of the virus detected in the U.S., the center officials said.

In recent months, Ebola – a contagious disease for which there is no known treatment or cure – has killed at least 3,330 people in West Africa, including 1,998 in Liberia alone, according to the latest figures from the World Health Organization.

In response to Liberian aid requests, U.S. President Barack Obama has sent 3,000 U.S. troops to Liberia to help authorities there combat the outbreak.

Washington also plans to set up 17 healthcare facilities – of 100 beds each – to isolate and treat patients, along with a facility in which it plans to train 500 healthcare workers per week.

Ebola, a tropical fever that first appeared in 1976 in Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo, can be transmitted to humans from wild animals.

It can also reportedly spread through contact with the body fluids of infected persons or of those who have died of the virus.