Panic as escaped Ebola patient is recaptured

Health workers disinfect the body of a person suspected of dying from the Ebola virus on Sept. 2 in Monrovia, Liberia. (AP Photo)

Credit: George Mathis

Credit: George Mathis

Health workers disinfect the body of a person suspected of dying from the Ebola virus on Sept. 2 in Monrovia, Liberia. (AP Photo)

Imagine how terrible it would be to have Ebola.

Now imagine you are in Africa, forced to live in a detention center with other Ebola patients and you are starving because there's not enough food.

Imagine you have to wear a tag on your arms that tells everyone you are diseased and that when you escape, people panic and men dressed in Hazmat suits arrive and chase you down and force you into the back of a truck against your will.

You can stop imagining now and watch this video , which shows that scenario taking place.

It may look like a scene from '28 Days Later' or another apocalyptic film, but it's the unfortunate reality in Liberia.

The Telegraph said the Ebola patient was captured Monday after escaping a hospital that is so crowded it is turning away new Ebola victims.

Some reports indicated the medical care given to Ebola patients in Africa is so inadequate people aren't being fed, and some patients are trying to escape to find food.

The saddest part of the video? When the truck containing the patient speeds away, the crowd cheers and/or jeers.

In a Reuters article, a man who witnessed the scene said, "We told the Liberian government from the beginning that we do not want an Ebola camp here. Today makes it the fifth Ebola patient coming outside vomiting."

Recently, when American Ebola patients were flown from Africa to Emory hospital, the CDC assured us that the disease was no threat the the U.S. public.

Today, that same agency warns Ebola could soon be out of control in Africa.

"I could not possibly overstate the need for an emergency response," said Thomas Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who just returned from visiting Ebola treatment centers in West Africa. "There is a window of opportunity to tamp this down, but that window is closing. ... We need action now."

The World Health Organization reports that more than 3,000 people have been infected with Ebola in five countries of West Africa — Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Nigeria and Senegal — and more than half have died.

About 70 people with the CDC are in Africa trying to prevent the disease from spreading.

A New York Times reporter covering the outbreak in Africa says many patients do not trust foreign doctors, and many locals believe foreign doctors are intentionally spreading Ebola .

For doctors, that sort of sentiment makes a tough job much tougher. For thousands of others in Africa, the fear and misunderstanding adds to the death count.

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