Sierra Leone Declares Public Health Emergency for Ebola Outbreak

The African country of Sierra Leone has declared a public health emergency regarding the continued and rapid spread of the Ebola virus across West Africa.

Following the death of the country's top Ebola doctor this week, Sierra Leone's president Ernest Bai Koroma announced Wednesday that the country was declaring a public health crisis. "I hereby proclaim a State of Public Emergency to enable us take a more robust approach to deal with the Ebola outbreak," the president said in a speech late Wednesday.

Koroma added that the new, intensive measures would last 60 to 90 days in an effort to contain the virulent disease. "All epicenters of the disease will be quarantined."

This next Monday will also be declared "National Stay Home Day" in an effort to stop the spread of the virus. This year, Ebola, also known as hemmorhagic fever, has claimed the lives of 670 in West African countries, including Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone.

Earlier this week, Sierra Leone's top doctor fighting the Ebola virus, Doctor Sheik Umar Khan, died after the contracting the disease a week earlier. He was hailed by government officials as a "national hero" who was credited with treating over 100 people infected by the disease.

"It is a big and irreparable loss to Sierra Leone as he was the only specialist the country had in viral haemorrhagic fevers," Sierra Leone's chief medical officer, Brima Kargbo, said of the 39-year-old doctor's death.

Another doctor infected with the virus, American Kent Brantly, is said to be showing slight signs of improvement. Brantly was working at a clinic in Liberia for the evangelical group Samaritan's Purse.