Freetown - Sierra Leone officials appealed for help on
Friday to trace the first known resident in the capital
with Ebola whose family forcibly removed her from a
Freetown hospital after testing positive for the deadly
disease.
Radio stations in Freetown, a city of around 1 million
inhabitants, broadcast the appeal on Friday to locate a
woman who tested positive for the disease that has
killed 660 people across Guinea, Liberia and Sierra
Leone since an outbreak was first identified in
February.
"Saudatu Koroma of 25 Old Railway Line, Brima Lane,
Wellington," the announcement said. "She is a positive
case and her being out there is a risk to all. We need
the public to help us locate her."
Koroma, 32, a resident of the densely populated
Wellington neighbourhood, had been admitted to an
isolation ward while blood samples were tested for the
virus, Health ministry spokesperson Sidi Yahya Tunis.
The results came back on Thursday.
"The family of the patient stormed the hospital and
forcefully removed her and took her away," Tunis said.
"We are searching for her."
Fighting one of the world's deadliest diseases is
straining the region's weak health systems, while a lack
of information and suspicion of medical staff has led
many to shun treatment.
Earlier this year, a man in Freetown tested positive for
Ebola although he is believed to have caught it
elsewhere.
According to health ministry data and officials, dozens
of people confirmed by laboratory tests to have Ebola
are now unaccounted for in Sierra Leone, where the
majority of cases have been recorded in the country's
east.
While international medical organisations have
deployed experts to the field in an attempt to contain
the outbreak, the World Health Organisation (WHO)
said poor health infrastructure and a lack of manpower
were hindering their efforts.
"We're seeing many of these facilities simply don't
have enough people to provide the constant level of
care needed," WHO spokesperson Paul Garwood told a
news briefing in Geneva on Friday.
There is no cure or vaccine for Ebola, which causes
diarrhoea, vomiting and internal and external bleeding.
It can kill up to 90% of those infected, although the
mortality rate of the current outbreak is around 60%.
The West African outbreak is the first time that Ebola,
which was first discovered in what is now Democratic
Republic of Congo in 1976, has appeared in heavily
populated urban areas and international travel hubs.
Cases have already been confirmed in Conakry and
Monrovia, the capital cities of Guinea and Liberia.
On Thursday authorities in Nigeria announced that they
were testing a Liberian man for Ebola after he
collapsed upon arrival at an airport in Lagos, the
country's commercial capital and a mega-city of 21
million people. m.news24.com/nigeria/Africa/News/Ebola-victim-in-Sierra-Leone-on-the-run-20140726-2

This is serious o!

hmmmmmmmm... I don tire

The woman will have died by now the government should be "looking" for the family especially those who had contact with the original carrier.