Sierra Leone finally declares a state of emergency over Ebola. -Yahoo/Reuters

President Koroma of Sierra Leone

Sierra Leone has finally declared a state of an emergency over the Ebola crisis. -Yahoo/Reuters. Troops are being called to quarantine areas where the disease has broken out. Soldiers will assist doctors in keeping order and will go house to house to round up Ebola victims. All public meetings in the country, excluding those about how to fight Ebola, are banned. Sierra Leone also has joined Liberia in creating strict new air travel protocols including body temperature checks and other restrictions. 

My Comment:

Too little too late? Let's hope not. Ebola is completely out of control, so hopefully these new measures slow the spread of the disease. Unfortunately, "state of emergency" translates to "day of the jackboot" for Africans, and to be fair it's going to look a lot like a totalitarian takeover for the people in the hot-zones. Africans in these countries have plenty of experience with government abuse and most likely fear their governments more then Ebola, with some justification to be sure. Expect these harsh, but necessary, measures to drive people with the disease underground and for there to be even more distrust of the government and medical personnel. People might even die because of it, not just from the disease but from violence either from the state or from people who will resist these measures.

EDIT: AFP is reporting that the death toll has risen to 729 and the total number of infections is 1,323.