> Liberian officials fear EVD could soon spread through the capital's
> largest slum after residents raided a quarantine center for suspected
> patients and took items including bloody sheets and mattresses. The
> violence in the West Point slum occurred late Sat [16 Aug 2014] and
> was led by residents angry that patients were brought to the holding
> center from other parts of Monrovia, Tolbert Nyenswah, assistant
> health minister, said Sun [17 Aug 2014].
> 
> Local witnesses told Agence France Presse that there were armed men
> among the group that attacked the clinic. "They broke down the doors
> and looted the place. The patients all fled," said Rebecca Wesseh, who
> witnessed the attack and whose report was confirmed by residents and
> the head of Health Workers Association of Liberia, George Williams. Up
> to 30 patients were staying at the center, and many of them fled at
> the time of the raid, said Nyenswah [other reports put the number at
> 17. - Mod.JW]. Once they are located, they will be transferred to the
> EVD center at Monrovia's largest hospital, he said.
> 
> The attack comes just one day after a report of a crowd of several
> hundred local residents chanting "No Ebola in West Point" drove away a
> burial team and their police escort that had come to collect the
> bodies of suspected EVD victims in a slum in the capital, Reuters
> reports. West Point residents went on a "looting spree," stealing
> items from the clinic that were likely infected, said a senior police
> official, who insisted on anonymity because he was not authorized to
> brief the press. The residents took medical equipment and mattresses
> and sheets that had bloodstains, he said. EVD is spread through bodily
> fluids including blood, vomit, feces and sweat.
> 
> "All between the houses, you could see people fleeing with items
> looted from the patients," the official said, adding that he now
> feared "the whole of West Point will be infected." Some of the looted
> items were visibly stained with blood, vomit and excrement, said
> Richard Kieh, who lives in the area.
> 
> The incident creates a new challenge for Liberian health officials who
> were already struggling to contain the outbreak. New figures released
> by the World Health Organization show that Liberia has recorded more
> EVD deaths (413) than any of the other affected countries.
> 
> Liberian police restored order to the West Point neighborhood on Sun
> [17 Aug 2014]. Sitting on land between the Montserrado River and the
> Atlantic Ocean, West Point is home to at least 50 000 people,
> according to a 2012 survey. Distrust of government runs high in West
> Point, with rumors regularly circulating that the government plans to
> clear the slum out entirely. Though there had been talk of putting
> West Point under quarantine should EVD break out there, assistant
> health minister Nyenswah said Sunday [17 Aug 2014] that no such step
> has been taken. "West Point is not yet quarantined, as is being
> reported," he said.
> 
> While the armed attack is likely the most brazen attack on health
> workers trying to contain the deadly outbreak, it is far from the 1st
> in the region worst-hit by it. There have been numerous reports of
> locals attacking those trying to stop the disease by throwing stones
> at aid workers, blocking aid convoys, and forcibly removing patients
> from clinics. Many locals blame foreigners for bringing the disease,
> saying it had never been there before they arrived. The mistrust of
> central government and help from outside runs deep in this part of
> West Africa. All 3 countries worst-hit by the outbreak -- Liberia,
> Sierra Leone, and Guinea -- are relatively recently off decades of
> either brutal civil war or iron-fisted dictatorships.