News Dogs EATING corpses of Ebola victims in Liberia after digging them out of shallow graves that they had been dumped in By Matthew Blake for MailOnline 14:04 29 Aug 2014, updated 22:22 29 Aug 2014 Officials hurriedly buried bodies in middle of night so locals would not know Residents in Johnsonville Township had refused permission for graves Experts say dogs will not get sick but could transmit to humans by biting Comes as Ebola spreads to Senegal after infected man arrives from Guinea WHO says Ebola cases are rising at highest rate since outbreak began Dogs are digging up the corpses of Ebola victims buried in shallow graves in Liberia and eating them in the street, villagers have claimed. Furious residents of Johnsonville Township, outside capital Monrovia, raised the alarm after packs of wild dogs were spotted digging up corpses from a specially-designated Ebola graveyard, dragging them into the open and feeding on their flesh. It is the latest development in the epidemic, which was today confirmed to have reached Senegal. The grisly scenes in Liberia came three weeks after government health officials - desperate to stem the countrys rising infection rate - hurriedly buried the bodies despite a heated standoff with villagers who refused to give their permission to use the land. But rather than resolve the dispute, Liberias Ministry of Health burial team dug the graves at night to avoid further confrontation, making the infected bodies easy targets for scavengers, villagers say. Dead in the street: People gather around a man suspected of dying from Ebola in Monrovia +8 Dead in the street: People gather around a man suspected of dying from Ebola in Monrovia Now fears are mounting that the dogs - which cannot grow sick from the strain of Ebola running rampant through West Africa but can carry it - will be able to pass it on to humans through licking or biting. We are very disappointed in the Health Ministry, especially the government that took an oath to defend and protect us, Alfred Wiah told The New Dawn. To see them act in such manner is unacceptable and we’ll never allow the government come to bury any longer. Ebola virus is mutating rapidly, experts warn U.S. colleges screen students from West Africa for Ebola as fears grow over epidemic He added: They will be resisted by us because I think the government has failed to protect us. Why bring Ebola bodies and not bury them well? While the dogs are unlikely to grow sick from the virus, there is a strong chance they could still pass it on to humans, Dr. Stephen Korsman of the University of Cape Town’s medical virology division told News 24. High death rate: So far Ebola has killed more than 1,500 of the 3,000 people it has sickened in Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone, according to an official count . High death rate: So far Ebola has killed more than 1,500 of the 3,000 people it has sickened in Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone. [The dogs] infections appear to be asymptomatic, he said. This means that dogs won’t get sick, but they still could carry a potential risk through licking or biting. The news comes as it was revealed the killer disease has reached Senegal, making it the fifth West African country to be affected by the outbreak. The countrys Ministry of Health said a man infected with Ebola traveled to Senegal, bringing the disease to that country for the first time in an outbreak that has hit four other West African nations and killed more than 1,500 people. Health Minister Awa Marie Coll Seck told reporters that the infected person, a university student from Guinea, sought treatment at a hospital in Senegals capital, Dakar, on Tuesday but gave no indication he might have Ebola. The next day, an epidemiological surveillance team in Guinea alerted Senegalese authorities that they had lost track of a person who had had contact with sick people. The team said that the person disappeared three weeks ago and may have come to Senegal.
Posted on: Sat, 30 Aug 2014 07:36:31 +0000