Liberia Says Escaped Ebola Patients Returned To Quarantine
By Terence Sesay and Kristin Palitza, dpa
MONROVIA, Liberia — All 37 Ebola patients who fled an isolation ward in Liberia have been returned to a clinic, Information Minister Lewis Brown said on Tuesday.
Residents of the West Point slum near the capital, Monrovia, broke into a quarantine center on Saturday and freed the patients who were suspected of being infected with the virus.
The patients were transferred to a newly established Ebola treatment center at the John F. Kennedy Hospital in Monrovia, Brown said.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has said the number of deaths from Ebola has risen to 1,229 in West Africa.
It said 2,240 suspected or confirmed cases had been reported in the region.
Between Aug. 14 and 16, 113 new suspected and confirmed Ebola cases as well as 84 deaths were reported from Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone, according to the WHO.
The new figures were released a day after the WHO voiced opposition to Ebola-related travel and trade bans.
The risk of getting infected with Ebola during travel was “low,” it said.
The current outbreak is caused by the most lethal strain in the family of Ebola viruses.
Ebola causes massive hemorrhages and has a fatality rate of up to 90 percent. It is transmitted through contact with blood and other body fluids.
AFP Photo/Carl de Souza
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