Dear god. An Ebola quarantine center in Monrovia has been attacked by “protesters”; bloodstained bedding and mattresses were removed and at least 20 people who were being monitored have left the center.
The centre was set up to observe suspected Ebola patients and then transfer them to a main treatment centre if they prove positive, assistant health minister Tolbert Nyenswah told the BBC.
It is not known if those at the centre were infected with the virus, though one report suggested they had proved positive.
A senior police officer said blood-stained mattresses, beddings and medical equipment were taken from the centre.
“This is one of the stupidest things I have ever seen in my life”, he said.
Lordy lordy lordy; what not to do during an Ebola outbreak.
The Ebola epidemic began in Guinea in February and has since spread to Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria.
On Friday, the death toll rose to 1,145 after the WHO said 76 new deaths had been reported in the two days to 13 August. There have been 2,127 cases reported in total.
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.
So this is completely horrifying.
Colonial occupation still casts a very ugly shadow across Africa, and I’ve read that there are claims spreading that Ebola and HIV were created by Europeans and Americans for the purpose of genocide. Combine, and learn that European and American doctors are gathering people into a medical facility under lock-down conditions, and shit like this happens. “For their own good, and for yours” never sounds reassuring, even when you know what the situation actually is.
@1:
What on earth does colonialism have to do with this?
If western doctors and medical personnel don’t get involved in this ( there aren’t enough african doctors and nurses, nor local supplies) this could become very ugly.
There are now more than 2,000 RECORDED case and more than half have died. there have also been other confirmed cases in Lagos, a crowded and chaotic city of 21 million.
The idiots THINK it has to do with colonialism. Combine that set of ‘sincerely held beliefs’ with the presence of sociopathic preachers with access to television and radio, stir in hopelessly corrupt governments that have ignored public health, education, and infrastructure for decades…