EBOLA: ARTICLE WRITTEN AS FAR BACK AS 1982 INCLUDED LIBERIA AS PART OF EBOLA VIRUS ENDEMIC ZONE

Most public health officials in Liberia believe that the Ebola virus which has killed over 10,000 people in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea is a new phenomenon not seen in West Africa before 2013 except for a rare case in Ivory Coast in 1994.

But it has emerged that an article written by European Researchers from Germany in Annals of Virology stated the results seem to indicate that Liberia had to be included in 'Ebola Virus Endemic Zone'.

The paper was published in 1982.

The authors asserted in the future, medical personnel in Liberian health centres should be aware of the possibility that they may come accross active ebola cases and thus be prepared to avoid nosocomial epidemics.

The problem partly is that most of these articles were not co-written by a Liberian scientist. The researchers collected their samples, returned home and published the articles in European Medical Journals.

Few Liberians then were trained in Laboratory or epidemiological methods.
No senior official currently serving in Liberian Ministry of Health had heard of these studies.