Tens of thousands of people have been barricaded in an impoverished slum in Liberia's capital to try to contain the spread of Ebola. Residents of West Point lined up to receive rice, cooking oil and drinking water after authorities put up barbed wire barricades.
West Point is a densely populated slum surrounded by floating sewage that occupies a half-mile long peninsula in Liberia's seaside capital.
These pictures by Getty Images photographer John Moore show the plight of those trapped in the slum.
A West Point slum resident looks through the bars on the closed gates on the second day of quarantineJohn Moore/Getty ImagesWest Point residents look out of the locked gate on the second day of the Liberian government's Ebola quarantine on their neighbourhoodJohn Moore/Getty ImagesResidents of West Point receive rice, beans and cooking oil. They are forbidden from leaving the seaside slum, due to the Ebola outbreak in their community.John Moore/Getty ImagesScuffles break out as quarantined residents of the West Point slum wait for food aidJohn Moore/Getty ImagesArmed Liberian police officers look towards West Point on the second day of the Ebola quarantine on the seaside slumJohn Moore/Getty Images
Liberia is being hit especially hard by the dreaded virus, accounting for 576 of the 1,350 people that have been killed by Ebola in West Africa.
Some 2,473 people are believed to have contracted the disease, in four countries, making the current outbreak is bigger than the combined caseloads all previous Ebola outbreaks.
Suspected Ebola sufferer Finda 'Zanabo' prays over her sick family members before being admitted to the Doctors Without Borders (MSF), Ebola treatment centre. She and her family left an Ebola isolation centre in the West Point slum when it was overrun by a mob on 16 August. Her nephew Saah Exco, 10, died on Wednesday, after being taken to the JFK Ebola ward in Monrovia.John Moore/Getty ImagesPeople with suspected Ebola lie on the ground outside the Doctors Without Borders Ebola treatment centre after arriving by ambulanceJohn Moore/Getty ImagesA man lies under a car after being put there in detention by the Liberian army on the second day of the government's Ebola quarantine on West Point slum in Monrovia. An army officer said the man was showing symptoms of Ebola and was caught trying to escape from West Point.John Moore/Getty Images
Ebola is transmitted by direct contact with the bodily fluids of someone who is sick and showing symptoms. To stop its spread, experts say, the sick should be isolated and not have any contact with the healthy. Overcrowded treatment centres, reluctance on the part of sick people to seek medical care, and burial practices that involve touching the dead have helped fuel the disease's spread.
An MSF staff member wearing protective clothing stands in the high risk area of the Ebola treatment centreJohn Moore/Getty ImagesDoctors Without Borders (MSF) staff suit up in protective clothing before entering a high-risk area of the MSF Ebola treatment centreJohn Moore/Getty ImagesA member of staff checks his protective clothing before entering a high-risk area of the MSF Ebola treatment centreJohn Moore/Getty Images
Several counties and districts in Sierra Leone and Liberia have been cordoned off, and there are concerns this is slowing the supply of food and other goods to these areas. The World Food Programme is preparing to feed one million people affected by such travel restrictions.
