page_title: Ebola virus epidemic in Liberia
section_title: West Point quarantine (19–30 Aug)
hierarchical_section_title: Ebola virus epidemic in Liberia / Start of outbreak: 2014 / August / West Point quarantine (19–30 Aug)
caption_attribution_description: English: Bushrod Island, Monrovia, Liberia
context_page_description: An epidemic of Ebola virus disease occurred in Liberia from 2014 to 2015, along with the neighbouring countries of Guinea and Sierra Leone. The first cases of virus were reported by late March 2014. The Ebola virus, a biosafety level four pathogen, is an RNA virus discovered in 1976.
  Before the outbreak of the Ebola epidemic the country had 50 doctors for its population of 4.3 million. The country's health system was seriously weakened by a civil war that ended in 2003.
context_section_description: On 18 August, a mob of residents from West Point, an impoverished area of Monrovia, descended upon a local Ebola clinic to protest its presence. The protesters turned violent, threatening the caretakers, removing the infected patients, and looting the clinic of its supplies, including blood-stained bed sheets and mattresses. Police and aid workers expressed fear that this would lead to mass infections of Ebola in West Point.
  On 19 August, the Liberian government quarantined the entirety of West Point and issued a curfew statewide.  Violence again broke out on 22 August, after the military fired on protesting crowds.  An inquiry into the incident found the security forces at fault, stating they "fired with complete disregard for human life".  The quarantine blockade of the West Point area was lifted on 30 August. The Information Minister, Lewis Brown, said that this step was taken to ease efforts to screen, test, and treat residents.
caption: A view of the West Point area of Monrovia
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