Two Liberians died on Sunday after doctors and Health
workers refused to attend to them for fear of contacting the Ebola Virus.
Reuters reports that Nema Red, a resident of Clara Town,
said the two men who lay dead in the street for days had shown symptoms of
Ebola such as bleeding and vomiting.
"They started seeking help from the community to take
them to the hospital, but community members ran for their lives ... they both
gave up and dropped dead on the ground in the streets of Clara
Town," she said, saying they lay there four days.
Elsewhere at a swampy
field in the Liberian capital, the health ministry ordered 100 graves to
be dug for victims of the deadly tropical virus, but only five shallow holes
partly filled with water had been prepared by Saturday evening.
Monrovia's overcrowded and understaffed Elwa Hospital has had to turn away Ebola cases this week, a scenario exacerbated by the withdrawal of some international staff following the infection of two U.S. health workers here. One of them has arrived for treatment in the United States and the second is due to follow on an overnight flight on Monday.
Strong resistance like this from workers too afraid to handle infected corpses or communities opposed to burying them nearby has slowed down stretched West African governments as they seek to control the worst Ebola outbreak in history. The Ebola virus has killed 227 people so far in Liberia and at least 826 people in the region, according to the World Health Organization.
Information Minister Lewis Brown confirmed the bodies had been collected but said they had only been there for a few hours. "They have been removed," he said, adding their houses would be fumigated and relatives placed under surveillance.
Monrovia's overcrowded and understaffed Elwa Hospital has had to turn away Ebola cases this week, a scenario exacerbated by the withdrawal of some international staff following the infection of two U.S. health workers here. One of them has arrived for treatment in the United States and the second is due to follow on an overnight flight on Monday.
Strong resistance like this from workers too afraid to handle infected corpses or communities opposed to burying them nearby has slowed down stretched West African governments as they seek to control the worst Ebola outbreak in history. The Ebola virus has killed 227 people so far in Liberia and at least 826 people in the region, according to the World Health Organization.
Information Minister Lewis Brown confirmed the bodies had been collected but said they had only been there for a few hours. "They have been removed," he said, adding their houses would be fumigated and relatives placed under surveillance.
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