Struggling Liberia creates 'plague villages' in Ebola epicentre

A crowd gathers near a checkpoint, which controls the movement of people in and out of Ebola-hit regions, at the entrance to Bomi county in northwestern Liberia August 11, 2014. REUTERS/Sabrina Karim

BOYA Liberia/DAKAR (Reuters) - To try to control the Ebola epidemic spreading through West Africa, Liberia has quarantined remote villages at the epicentre of the virus, evoking the "plague villages" of medieval Europe that were shut off from the outside world.

With few food and medical supplies getting in, many abandoned villagers face a stark choice: stay where they are and risk death or skip quarantine, spreading the infection further in a country ill-equipped to cope.