France Asks Citizens to Avoid Liberia, Sierra Leone Over Ebola Scare

FILE - Air France planes are parked on the tarmac at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport, in Roissy, near Paris, Feb. 7, 2012.

The French government on Wednesday recommended its nationals avoid Sierra Leone and Liberia due to the risk associated with the Ebola virus and asked Air France-KLM to suspend flights to the Sierra Leone capital, Freetown.

The government said its decision was aimed at those people whose presence was not absolutely necessary, and was driven by “developments in the epidemic and the state of the health systems” in those two West African countries.

It said flights to Nigeria and Guinea need not be suspended.

The World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday said it had shut a laboratory in Sierra Leone and withdrawn staff from there after a health worker there was infected.