There are
conflicting reports over the fate of 17 Ebola patients who vanished after a
quarantine centre in the Liberian capital Monrovia was looted.
An angry mob
attacked the centre in the city’s densely populated West Point township on
Saturday evening.
A senior
health official said all of the patients were being moved to another medical
facility.
But a
reporter told the BBC that 17 had escaped while 10 others were taken away by
their families.
More than 400
people are known to have died from the virus in Liberia, out of a total of
1,145 deaths recorded by the World Health Organization.
Assistant
Health Minister Tolbert Nyenswah said protesters had been unhappy that patients
were being brought in from other parts of the capital.
Other reports
suggested the protesters had believed Ebola was a hoax and wanted to force the
quarantine centre to close.
The attack at
the Monrovia centre is seen as a major setback in the struggle to halt the
outbreak, says the BBC’s Will Ross, reporting from Lagos.
Health
experts say that the key to ending the Ebola outbreak is to stop it spreading
in Liberia, where ignorance about the virus is high and many people are
reluctant to cooperate with medical staff.
‘All gone’
Mr Nyenswah
said after the attack that 29 patients at the centre were being relocated and
readmitted to an Ebola treatment centre located in the facility of the
country’s John F Kennedy Memorial Medical Center.
However, Jina
Moore, a journalist for Buzzfeed who is in Monrovia, told the BBC that 10 people
had been freed by their relatives on Friday night and 17 had escaped during the
looting the next day.
Rebecca
Wesseh, who witnessed the attack, told the AFP news agency: “They broke down
the door and looted the place. The patients have all gone.”
The
attackers, mostly young men armed with clubs, shouted insults about President
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and yelled “there’s no Ebola”, she said, adding that
nurses had also fled the centre.
The head of
the Health Workers Association of Liberia, George Williams, said the unit had
housed 29 patients who “had all tested positive for Ebola” and were receiving
preliminary treatment.
Confirming
that 17 had escaped, he said that only three had been taken by their relatives,
the other nine having died four days earlier.
Fallah
Boima’s son was admitted to the ward four days ago, and seemed to be doing
well, but when the distraught father arrived for his daily visit on Sunday his
son was nowhere to be seen, AFP adds.
“I don’t know
where he is and I am very confused,” he said. “He has not called me since he
left the camp. Now that the nurses have all left, how will I know where my son
is?”
‘Stupidest
thing’
Ebola is
spread by contact with an infected person’s bodily fluids, such as sweat and
blood, and no cure or vaccine is currently available.
Blood-stained
mattresses, bedding and medical equipment were taken from the centre, a senior
police officer told BBC News, on condition of anonymity.
BBC News.
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