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Vice president of Sierra Leone quarantines himself after bodyguard dies of Ebola

Vice President Samuel Sam-Sumana said he would "lead by example" by quarantining himself for 21 days following his bodyguard's death by the Ebola virus.

By Fred Lambert
Aerial view of Freetown, Sierra Leone. The vice president of the country quarantined himself on Feb. 29, 2015, as a precaution after one of his bodyguards died of the Ebola virus. Photo by Simon Ruf/CC/Flickr
Aerial view of Freetown, Sierra Leone. The vice president of the country quarantined himself on Feb. 29, 2015, as a precaution after one of his bodyguards died of the Ebola virus. Photo by Simon Ruf/CC/Flickr

FREETOWN , Sierra Leone, Feb. 28 (UPI) -- The vice president of Sierra Leone put himself into quarantine, pledging to avoid contact with anyone for 21 days, following the death of one of his bodyguards by the Ebola virus.

Vice President Samuel Sam-Sumana said on Saturday he would "lead by example" after last week's death of bodyguard John Koroma, who had contracted the virus.

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Sierra Leone is one of three African nations -- including Guinea and Liberia -- hit hardest by the Ebola epidemic, which has since December 2013 killed nearly 10,000 people. In Sierra Leone alone over 23,500 cases have been reported.

Late last year the outbreak seemed in decline. In January Mali's health ministry declared the country free of Ebola after 42 days passed without a new case, and the World Health Organization declared the Democratic Republic of the Congo free of Ebola in late Nov. 2014, making the same declaration about Senegal a month earlier.

As well, the United Nations estimated in January that Sierra Leone and Guinea had recorded their lowest number of confirmed cases of the disease since August 2014, while Liberia experienced its lowest weekly total since June of that year.

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Earlier this week officials from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea pledged to prevent any new Ebola infections in the next two months.

But a recent spat of infections in Sierra Leone have partially dashed in hopes. The WHO estimates that 63 of the 99 cases recorded in the region in the week beginning on Feb. 16 came from Sierra Leone.

Still, between 12 confirmed cases in Liberia, 134 in Guinea and 221 in Sierra Leone in the three weeks prior to Feb. 18, the numbers were 10 percent less than at the peak of the outbreak. The deflated numbers led Liberia earlier this week to announce the reopening of its land borders, which had been closed since July of last year.

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