LIBERIA-EBOLA ESCAPEE Ebola patient escapes Liberia quarantine centre in search of food

Record ID: 567122

  • Title: LIBERIA-EBOLA ESCAPEE Ebola patient escapes Liberia quarantine centre in search of food
  • Date: 2nd September 2014
  • Summary: MONROVIA, LIBERIA (SEPTEMBER 1, 2014) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF ESCAPED EBOLA PATIENT (RED SHIRT, HOLDING STICK AND STONES) WALKING THROUGH LOCAL COMMUNITY MARKET/ PEOPLE RUNNING AWAY FROM HIM LIBERIAN DOCTOR WALKING ALONGSIDE IN DISTANCE/ TRYING TO TALK TO HIM EBOLA HEALTH WORKERS ARRIVING IN PROTECTIVE SUITS, FOLLOWING PATIENT (SOUNDBITE) (English) WOMAN SAYING: "The patients are hungry, they are starving. No food, no water. The government need to do more. Let Ellen [Johnson-Sirleaf] do more." DOCTOR TRYING TO PUSH CROWD BACK (SOUNDBITE)(English) MAN SAYING: "We told the Liberian government from the beginning, we do not want Ebola camp here. Today makes it the fifth Ebola patient coming outside vomiting and toiletting." HEALTH WORKERS SURROUNDING PATIENT/ TRYING TO CONVINCE HIM TO GET BACK IN AMBULANCE HEALTH WORKERS PUSHING PATIENT BACK IN AMBULANCE/ PATIENT STRUGGLING CROWD RUNNING
  • Embargoed: 17th September 2014 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Liberia
  • Country: Liberia
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVAF26NTJXMSYPPZEUGAPKORIPOH
  • Story Text: A man on Monday (September 1) escaped from an Ebola quarantine centre in Monrovia and sent local people fleeing in fear as he walked through a local market in search of food.
    The patient, who wore a tag showing he had tested positive for Ebola, held a stick and tried to get away from doctors in the centre in the Paynesville neighbourhood as they arrived on the scene attempting to catch him.
    The patient escaped from Monrovia's Elwa hospital, which last month was so crowded it had to turn away Ebola victims.
    More than 1,550 people in four West African countries have died from the virus since the outbreak was first recorded in March.
    Liberia has the highest infection rate with around 700 deaths out of 1327 suspected and confirmed cases.
    One local woman said care for Ebola patients was so inadequate they were not even being fed.
    "The patients are hungry, they are starving. No food, no water. The government need to do more. Let Ellen [Johnson-Sirleaf] do more," she said.
    Healthcare workers eventually forced the man into a waiting ambulance and took him back to the facility.
    One local man said, he was the fifth patient to escape from the centre:
    "We told the Liberian government from the beginning, we do not want Ebola camp here. Today makes it the fifth Ebola patient coming outside vomiting and toiletting."
    President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, a U.S.-educated Nobel Peace Prize winner, has sought to quell criticism of the government's response to the outbreak by issuing orders threatening officials with dismissal for failing to report for work or for fleeing the country.
    On Saturday (August 30) government and health officials said they had plans to build five new Ebola treatment centres each with a capacity for 100 beds.
    The outbreak originally began in Guinea, but has spread to Sierra Leone, Liberia, Nigeria and most recently Senegal.

  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2014. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register