British Airways suspends flights to 2 West African countries due to Ebola

British Airways is the latest airline to cancel flight service to Liberia and Sierra Leone, amid the ongoing Ebola outbreak in West Africa.

In a statement released on Tuesday, the airline said flights will be suspended until Aug. 31 “due to the deteriorating public health situation in both countries.”

“The safety of our customers, crew and ground teams is always our top priority and we will keep the route under constant review in the coming weeks,” the company said.

The move comes on the heels of similar decisions by Emirates Airlines and Nigeria’s largest carrier, Arik Air.

Aid worker says more help needed

Meanwhile, one aid worker suggests it’s time for the international community to step up support to countries hard hit by the outbreak.

Doctors Without Borders official Anja Wolz, who is in Sierra Leone, told CNN he doesn’t believe that country’s government is able to deal with the outbreak.

Wolz said people there are continuing to perform unsafe burials without disinfecting the body, with patients running away instead of seeking treatment.

The United States is planning to send 50 health experts to West Africa to help contain the outbreak, something the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said will take many months.

U.S. aid workers recovering

Doctors in the U.S. are cautiously optimistic about the condition of two American aid workers infected with Ebola. The pair is now in isolation at Atlanta’s Emory University Hospital where they’re receiving an experimental treatment for the virus.

The two Americans were flown to the U.S. from Liberia, and they are said to be showing signs of improvement. They’ve been given doses of a cocktail drug that’s never been used on humans before. The treatment is designed to neutralize the virus so it can’t do any further damage.

Latest Ebola developments

Spain is preparing to repatriate a Spanish missionary priest who has tested positive for Ebola, according to a report by The Associated Press.

The priest, Miguel Pajares, is one of three missionaries being kept in isolation at the San Jose de Monrovia Hospital in Liberia who has tested positive for the virus.

The other two infected aid workers were identified as Chantal Pascaline Mutwamene of Congo and Paciencia Melgar from Equatorial Guinea.

The United Nations Health Council has called an emergency two-day meeting starting on Wednesday to discuss the situation.

This is deadliest Ebola outbreak in history. Of the nearly 2,500 deaths reported since the 1970s, more than a third have occurred since March of this year.

So far, 887 people have died in the current outbreak.

With files from Kevin Misener and The Associated Press

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