Monrovia, 18 Aug - (ANA) - There are conflicting reports over the fate of 17 suspected Ebola patients who vanished after a quarantine centre in the Liberian capital was looted. An angry mob attacked the centre in Monrovia's densely populated West Point township on Saturday evening. A senior health official said all of the patients had been moved to another medical facility. 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. 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. 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.

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. (ANA)

FA/ANA/18 August 2014------