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| Diagram credit: PictureDotNews |
Armed men claiming that “there’s no
Ebola” in Liberia raided a quarantine centre for the deadly disease in Monrovia
overnight, prompting at least 20 patients infected with the deadly virus to
flee, a witness said Sunday.
“They broke down the door and looted
the place. The patients have all gone,” said Rebecca Wesseh, who witnessed the
attack and whose report was confirmed by residents and the head of Health
Workers Association of Liberia, George Williams.
Williams said the unit housed 29
patients who were receiving preliminary treatment before being taken to
hospital. It was unclear how many are now at large.
“They had all tested positive for
Ebola,” he said, adding that nine had died, without elaborating.
Wesseh said she heard the assailants
shouting that President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf “is broke”, adding: “She wants
money. There’s no Ebola” in Liberia.
Wesseh said the mostly young men
armed with clubs broke into the isolation unit set up in a highschool in a
Monrovia suburb.
Nurses also fled the attack, Wesseh
said.
The Ebola outbreak, the worst since the virus
first appeared in 1976, has claimed 1,145 lives in five months, according to
the UN World Health Organization’s latest figures as of August 13: 413 in
Liberia, 380 in Guinea, 348 in Sierra Leone and four in Nigeria.
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