Africa

Liberian authorities locate all 17 ‘runaway Ebola patients’

World Health Organisation says 1,229 people have now died of virus in four countries

Health inspection officers help a mock patient get into a negative pressure isolation stretcher during a drill to demonstrate the procedures of transporting an Ebola victim at Shenzhen Entry-exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureauin China. Photograph: Reuters.

Tue Aug 19 2014 - 11:31

Authorities in Liberia have found all 17 suspected Ebola patients who fled a quarantine centre in Monrovia at the weekend and transferred them to another clinic, the information minister said today.

“We are glad to confirm that all of the 17 individuals have been accounted for and have now been transferred to JFK Ebola specialist treatment centre,” Lewis Brown said.

He also said that three infected African doctors who had received the experimental Ebola drug Zmapp were showing “remarkable signs of improvement”, quoting an assessment by the doctor overseeing their treatment.

The World Health Organisation said today that the Ebola outbreak in West Africa has now killed some 1,229 people. It said 2,240 cases had been reported in Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone.

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The latest figures include 84 additional deaths from 113 new cases reported between August 14th and 16th.

Officials warned that measures to restrict travel in heavily infected areas, including quarantines of whole villages and counties, are limiting access to food in many cases.

Agencies

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