Ebola patient in Sierra Leone pulled from hospital by family

Woman can infect others, her family members and also those in community, health official says

Last Updated: May 27, 2014 10:59 AM ET

Relatives of an Ebola patient in Sierra Leone took her home from a community health centre despite protests from medical staff, risking spreading the deadly and highly infectious disease, a senior health official said on Tuesday.
The family said they did not trust the medical system and feared she would die if a transfer to the general hospital in the town of Kenema went ahead, Amara Jambai, the health ministry's director of disease prevention and control, said.
Lawmakers and community leaders would try to talk to family members and persuade them to return her to hospital, he said.

Employees of the sanitary control of Conakry airport check passengers before they leave Guinea in April. Guéckédou in Guinea is currently the epicentre for Ebola, the World Health Organization says. (Cellou Binani/AFP/Getty)

There has been no news of the woman, whose identity has been kept secret, since she was taken from Koindu to her village nearby, Jambai said by telephone from the capital Freetown.
Koindu shares a border with what the World Health Organization (WHO) says is the Ebola virus disease epicentre of Guéckédou in Guinea.
Asked about the risk posed by her removal from hospital, Jambai said: "She can infect others, her family members and also those in the community. There is no news of her condition because she has been taken away so we need to search and find her and make sure that it [Ebola] doesn't spread.".. http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/ebola-patient-in-sierra-leone-pulled-from-hospital-by-family-1.2655490