Two  Ebola patients that fleeing is dead

Doctors have confirmed that two out of the three people with Ebola who fled the hospital in DR Congo on Wednesday are dead. Two of them died after returning home, Doctors without Borders (MSF) said.

Between Sunday May 20 and Tuesday May 22, three patients voluntarily left the isolation unit at Wangata hospital in Mbandaka, Henry Gray, the agency’s emergency intervention coordinator in that city, said in a statement. 

                           

The first patient, who was on the brink of being cured, left the hospital on Sunday evening, he said. 

Gray said, the two others left the facility with their families on Monday night. One of them died at home, and his body was returned to the health centre for a secure burial.

The second was taken back to the centre yesterday morning and died during the night.

The Democratic Republic of Congo announced on May 8 that there had been cases of the notorious haemorrhagic fever in a remote northwestern district called Bikoro.

 Last Thursday, the first case was reported in a city in Mbandaka, a transport hub located on the Congo River. 

Twenty-seven people have died out of 58 cases, according to a World Health Organization (WHO) toll. 

Lacking a licensed drug to treat the contagious disease, doctors use tried-and-trusted measures to contain its spread by quarantining patients and tracing those who have been in contact with them. 

MSF, which supports the hospital in Wangata, said it was important to understand that forced hospitalisation would not work. The commitment of the patient” to being quarantined is fundamental, it said, highlighting the need for public awareness on how to halt the outbreak.