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In this picture
taken Thursday Nov. 20, 2014, an MSF Ebola heath worker is sprayed as he leaves
the contaminated zone at the Ebola treatment centre in Guéckédou, Guinea. (AP
Photo/Jerome Delay)
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Officials
in Guinea say bandits during a roadside robbery stole a cooler containing blood
samples that are believed to have Ebola, from a vehicle traveling from Kankan
prefecture in central Guinea to a test site in Guéckédou, in the south.
AP
reports it was a highway robbery but the bandits got more than they bargained
for when they stopped a taxi in Guinea and made off with blood samples that are
believed to be infected with the deadly Ebola virus.
Authorities
publicly appealed on national radio Friday to the unidentified robbers to hand
over the samples that were stolen from the taxi during its 265-kilometer
(165-mile) trek on winding rural roads from the central Kankan prefecture to a
test site in southern Guéckédou.
The
samples, stored in tightly wrapped vials tucked into a cooler bag, were in the
care of a Red Cross courier who was among nine passengers sharing a taxi when
three bandits on a motorbike led the attack near the town of Kissidougou, a
local Red Cross official said.
The
robbers forced the passengers out, stole mobile phones, cash and jewelry, and
fired into the air as they demanded the handover of the cooler bag, said Saa
Mamady Leno of the Red Cross in Guéckédou. The courier, Abubakar Donzo, was
later questioned by police.
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In this photo taken Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2014, a
woman runs through a village near Faranah, in Guinea. A coalition of companies
and aid groups announced plans Tuesday to test experimental drugs and collect
blood plasma from Ebola survivors to treat new victims of the disease in West
Africa. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic)
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Faya
Etienne Tolno, a spokesman for the Guinea Red Cross, said the aid group had a
shortage of vehicles for transport, which explains why a taxi was used. No one
was injured in the incident, which took place on a road known for banditry.
"We
don't understand why they stole the blood sample. Perhaps they thought there
was cash hidden in the flask," Tolno said.
Dr.
Barry Moumie, who heads patient care for the national Ebola response
coordination committee, told The Associated Press: "We have informed the
security services. If these thieves handle this blood, it will be
dangerous."
Ebola
is spread primarily by contact with infected bodily fluids including blood,
feces and vomit.
"I
can assure you, however, that the sample-transportation procedures will now be
strengthened to avoid such disappointments," Moumie said.
The
theft underscores how hazards abound and hiccups remain in the aid response,
despite millions of dollars' worth of international support pouring into West
Africa to fight a virus now responsible for more than 5,000 deaths in Liberia,
Sierra Leone and Guinea.
Dr.
Hans Rosling, who is advising Liberia on its Ebola response, noted the
difficulties of transporting such samples, saying countries and groups like the
United States and the United Nations have rules about moving such hazardous
materials.
In
Liberia, "we use specifically allocated motorbikes and cars. We use what's
available and what's reasonable. We have to organize things as we go
along," he said. "It may have been the correct decision in Guinea (to
use a taxi) and the robbery was just a sad mishap."
"There's no way we can
secure transport in all of this area," Rosling said. "It was a good
initiative to try to get the sample out."
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