Robbers in Guinea attack van they thought was carrying money but instead, found cooler of blood containing Ebola

Robbers in Guinea attack van they thought was carrying money but instead, found cooler of blood containing Ebola Armed bandits in Guinea have stolen a batch of blood samples infected with the deadly Ebola virus which were being delivered to a test centre, the Daily Mail of UK reported. The robbers held up a minibus near the town of Kissidougou which was transporting the samples from central Kankan prefecture to the test site 165 miles away in southern Gueckedou. The blood was stored in a sealed cooler and was being escorted by four Red Cross officials. It is believed the bandits had no idea what it was they were stealing and may have thought there was cash hidden inside the cooler. Guinea authorities publicly appealed on national radio to the unidentified robbers to hand over the stolen samples that are understood to have been taken from a single person. The theft underscores how hazards abound and hiccups remain in the aid response, despite millions of dollars’ worth of international support pouring into West Africa to fight a virus now responsible for more than 5,000 deaths. Guinea Red Cross press officer, Faya Etienne Tolno, explained that the Guinea Red Cross did not have its own vehicles for transport, which explains why a taxi was commissioned. “We don’t understand why they stole the blood sample. Perhaps they thought there was cash hidden in the flask,” Tolno said. Dr. Barry Moumie, who heads patient care for the national Ebola response coordination committee, told The Associated Press: “We have informed the security services. If these thieves handle this blood, it will be dangerous. “I can assure you, however, that the sample-transportation procedures will now be strengthened to avoid such disappointments,” he said. Ebola, which has killed more than 5,000 people in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, is spread primarily by contact with infected bodily fluids including blood, faeces and vomit. On Thursday, a doctor in Mali died of Ebola after treating an imam who also succumbed to the disease, taking the total toll in the west African country up to seven, health authorities said. The World Health Organisation said the virus was “almost certainly re-introduced into Mali by a 70-year-old Grand Imam from Guinea, who was admitted to Bamako’s Pasteur clinic on 25 October and died on 27 October.” The doctor had been undergoing treatment for Ebola for nearly two weeks, according to the health ministry. A total of five infections, all of which have proved fatal, were now linked to the imam. As well as the doctor, they include a male nurse who cared for the imam at the Pasteur clinic, and a 51-year-old friend who came to visit the imam. A two-year-old girl also died from the disease last month in an unconnected case in the western town of Kayes. The health ministry said a total of 303 people were under surveillance and had their temperatures taken twice a day. The Malian government had on Wednesday cited a figure of 413 people being monitored. The WHO said Wednesday 5,420 people have died from Ebola in the current outbreak, mostly in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. Meanwhile, a Cuban doctor who contracted Ebola in Sierra Leone has arrived in Switzerland for treatment. The Swiss news agency, SDA, reported on Friday that Felix Baez Sarria arrived on a flight overnight and was transported in a specially outfitted ambulance with a police escort to Geneva University Hospital. Geneva Canton Dr. Jacques-Andre Romand told the news agency that the 43-year-old Baez was able to disembark the plane on his own, and wore a protective suit and mask. The doctor’s treatment in Switzerland was organized by the World Health Organisation. Cuba sent a 165-member medical team to Sierra Leone to help in the fight against the Ebola epidemic. The World Health Organisation declared on Friday that an outbreak of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo was over after no people showed symptoms for two incubation periods since the last case. The outbreak was separate from the one spreading in West Africa, “Having reached that 42-day mark, the Democratic Republic of Congo is now considered free of Ebola transmission,” the WHO said in a statement. There were 49 deaths out of 66 people infected in the remote northwestern Equateur province, authorities said last week.