The health minister said the attack on the West Point health facility on Saturday was prompted by fear
Seventeen suspected Ebola patients who went missing in Liberia after a health centre in the capital was attacked have been found, a minister has said.
“They were traced and finally they turned themselves in” at a treatment centre, Lewis Brown told the BBC.
The government had previously denied they were missing.
New UN figures show that 1,229 people have now died since the beginning of this year in the outbreak that has also hit Sierra Leone, Guinea and Nigeria.
The World Health Organization says there were 84 deaths reported between 14 and 16 August.
Security has been stepped up at health centres treating Ebola patients in Liberia
The Ebola outbreak in West Africa is the world’s deadliest to date. The disease has no known cure.
Ebola Virus Disease (EVD)
- Symptoms include high fever, bleeding and central nervous system damage
- Fatality rate can reach 90% – but current outbreak has about 55%
- Incubation period is two to 21 days
- There is no vaccine or cure
- Supportive care such as rehydrating patients who have diarrhoea and vomiting can help recovery
- Fruit bats, a delicacy for some West Africans, are considered to be virus’ natural host