Liberia is now admitting that it does not know the whereabouts of 17 people who fled an Ebola treatment center in the capital Monrovia.  People went running after a neighborhood mob attacked the facility and made off with the used bedding and other items used by patients with the deadly, contagious disease.

Earlier, the Liberian government claimed that all of the patients were accounted for and moved to other treatment centers.  But by Monday, they were admitting that the attack on the quarantine centre was Liberia’s “greatest setback” since the Ebola outbreak began.

“Most of the people that went into this holding facility came there voluntarily,” said Assistant Health Minister Tolbert Nyenswah.  “So our impression is that they still want to be (there), but they were forcibly removed by vandals and looters, not because they wanted to leave; so we are sure that they will return.”  If they need to be coaxed, there are teams out searching for them.

There were members of the mob who didn’t believe in Ebola, and others who were angry that patients from all over Monrovia were being brought to their neighborhood. 

“This is one of the stupidest things I have ever seen in my life,” said a police officer that preferred to remain anonymous.  “All between the houses you could see people fleeing with items looted from the patients,” adding that he feared the looting would spread Ebola to the whole of the impoverished West Point neighborhood of the capital.

Meanwhile, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) is urging countries affected by Ebola to “conduct exit screening at international airports, seaports and land crossings.”  It didn’t mention those countries by name, but they are Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Nigeria.

“Any person with an illness consistent with (Ebola) should not be allowed to travel unless the travel is part of an appropriate medical evacuation,” the WHO said in a statement.  “There should be no international travel of Ebola contacts or cases, unless the travel is part of an appropriate medical evacuation.”

Ebola has killed 1,145 people in West Africa so far this year, and the outbreak is spreading.