Ebola patients in Liberia escape after an attack on their clinic

MONROVIA, Liberia — Club-wielding youths attacked an Ebola quarantine center in Liberia's capital on Sunday, forcing 17 infected patients to flee and striking a fresh blow to efforts to contain the worst-ever outbreak of the virus.

The attack highlighted the challenge faced by health authorities struggling against the epidemic that has killed 1,145 people since it erupted in west Africa early this year, spreading panic among local populations.

Doctors and nurses are not only fighting the disease, but a deep mistrust in communities often in the thrall of wild rumors that the virus was invented by the West.

"They broke down the door and looted the place. The patients have all gone," said Rebecca Wesseh, who witnessed the raid in Monrovia's densely populated West Point slum.

The attackers, mostly young men armed with clubs, shouted that President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf "is broke" and "there's no Ebola," she said.

The head of Health Workers Association of Liberia, George Williams, said the unit housed 29 patients who "had all tested positive for Ebola" and were receiving preliminary treatment before being taken to hospital.

"Of the 29 patients, 17 fled last night (after the assault). Nine died four days ago and three others were yesterday taken by force by their relatives" from the center, he said.

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Ebola is spread by contact with an infected person's bodily fluids, such as sweat and blood, and no cure or vaccine is currently available.

Victims in their final days are wracked by agonizing muscular pain, vomiting, diarrhea and catastrophic hemorrhaging described as "bleeding out," as vital organs break down.

Fallah Boima's son was admitted to the ward four days ago, and seemed to be doing well, but when the distraught father arrived for his daily visit on Sunday he was nowhere to be seen.

"This morning I came and the security man told me that I cannot enter because the people here attacked the place," Boima told AFP.

"I don't know where he is and I am very confused. He has not called me since he left the camp. Now that the nurses have all left how will I know where my son is."

'Cannibalistic rituals'

In Monrovia, residents had opposed the creation of the attacked quarantine center, set up by health authorities in a part of the Liberian capital seen as an epicenter of the Ebola outbreak.

"We told them not to [built] their camp here. They didn't listen to us," said a young resident, who declined to give his name. "This Ebola business we don't believe it."

Last month, in neighboring Sierra Leone, thousands tried to storm the main Ebola hospital in the eastern city of Kenema, threatening to burn it down and remove patients.

Local police chief Alfred Karrow-Kamara said the panic was caused by a former nurse who reportedly told people in the nearby fish market that Ebola was a pretense for "carrying out cannibalistic rituals."

Some 1,500 police and soldiers have been deployed in the worst-hit areas of Sierra Leone to prevent raids, but they are powerless in the face of the suspicion and fear of poorly educated traditional communities.

Health workers' pleas that relatives stop bathing the dead — who are highly contagious — have also increased suspicions, as many in traditional communities see ritual washing as a way of honoring the departed.

Former Sierra Leone youth and education minister Lansana Nyallah, who lost nine of his family to the virus, tried to address myths about it head on, saying: "To those who still believe that Ebola does not exist, please take heed."

Folk cures for the disease have proliferated. In Nigeria two people died and some 20 were hospitalized after they ingested an excessive amount of salt believing it could prevent Ebola.

There have also been reports in Liberia of people drinking chlorine in the hope that it will keep the disease at bay.

The Ebola outbreak, the worst since the virus first appeared in 1976, has claimed 1,145 lives in five months, according to the UN World Health Organization's latest figures.

On August 13 the UN agency said 413 had died in Liberia, 380 in Guinea, 348 in Sierra Leone and four in Nigeria.

Meanwhile in Spain, health authorities said Sunday that a patient, reportedly Nigerian, who was isolated over Ebola fears had tested negative for the hemorrhagic fever.