Ebola:Gambia lift travel ban

The Gambia government has lifted the travel ban imposed on countries affected by the deadly Ebola virus, namely Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.In a statement seen by APA on Sunday, the end of the ban takes immediate effect.
Although The Gambia has suffered no case of Ebola, the epidemic has indirectly affected the country’s tourism industry with holidaymakers reluctant to risk the danger of transmission by traveling to the country, a destination for tourists from Europe.
The government has been implementing measures to prevent the spread of the disease since April when the first case was discovered in Guinea last year.
It banned all flights from countries hit by the epidemic as part of steps to prevent the deadly virus from spreading to the country.
Consequently, the Ministry of Transport ordered local airline companies serving Banjul and the sub-region “not to pick up passengers in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea Conakry as inbound passengers to Banjul�.
Ebola has killed nearly 12, 000 people in Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea over the past eleven months.
Ebola causes flu-like symptoms including fever and in its worst cases results in excessive bleeding.
Infections among humans are via bodily fluids including sweat and can spread by simply touching an infected person.
With no certified vaccine, patients believed to have contracted the virus have to be isolated to stop further contagion.
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