Liberia minister in quarantine after driver dies of Ebola

By AFP

Liberia

OCT 16, 2014 LISTEN

Health workers sit at Medecins Sans Frontieres' Ebola treatment center inside the Samuel K. Doe stadium in Monrovia on October 15, 2014. By Zoom Dosso (AFP/File)

Monrovia (AFP) - A Liberian minister said Thursday she had gone into quarantine voluntarily after her driver died of the Ebola virus sweeping west Africa.

Liberia has been the hardest hit by the epidemic, with 2,458 deaths out of 4,249 cases, about half the global total, according to World Health Organization figures.

Transport Minister Angela Cassell-Bush said she had quarantined herself after her personal driver became sick.

"I did not have any direct contact with him but I am doing it by precaution," she said in a statement, adding that she would stay away from work for 21 days under agreed protocols.

It was not immediately known when her driver died.

Meanwhile, Liberia's chief medical officer, Bernice Dahn, said she had returned to work on Monday after being placed in quarantine for 21 days following the death of her deputy last month.

"I am well," she told AFP.