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 crowd were reportedly angry that an
Ebola isolation centre had been set up in
their neighbourhood
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?"


http://m.bbc.com/news/world-africa-28827091