UN Ebola pointman to visit west Africa

The UN's new pointman on Ebola was due to arrive in west Africa on Thursday for a visit aimed at shoring up health services in the region where at least 1,350 lives have been lost to the virus.
      
David Nabarro, a British physician appointed last week by UN Secretary Ban Ki-moon, said he would focus on "revitalising the health sectors" in Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone.
      
"One of the major issues is that health sectors and health services in countries affected by Ebola have really suffered," Nabarro told reporters in New York ahead of his trip.        

Nabarro will travel to Monrovia, Freetown, Conakry and Abuja as part of his overall mission to coordinate the global response to the worst-ever outbreak of Ebola.
     
His visit comes at a time when some of the affected countries are struggling to contain the spread of the killer disease.
      
Violence erupted in an Ebola quarantine zone in Liberia's capital Wednesday when soldiers opened fire and used tear gas on protesting crowds as they evacuated a state official and her family.
      
Four residents were injured in the clashes that flared in Monrovia's West Point slum which has been sealed off as part of tough new security measures aimed at containing the deadly virus.
      
Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has ordered a nightime curfew and the quarantine of West Point and Dolo Town, to the east of the capital.
      
Residents of West Point, where club-wielding youths stormed an Ebola medical facility on Saturday, reacted with fury to the crackdown, hurling stones and shouting at the security forces.
      
"It is inhumane," resident Patrick Wesseh told AFP...