2nd American doctor infected – had no contact with Ebola patients: Congo reports 31 deaths from virus

September 2014 – AFRICA – Another American doctor working for the missionary group SIM has tested positive for Ebola in Liberia. He had no contact with Ebola patients, and it’s a mystery how he contracted the virus. The doctor was treating pregnant women ELWA Hospital in Monrovia, Liberia, according to SIM. But he was not treating Ebola patients in the hospital’s separate Ebola isolation facility, the group said, adding that it was unclear how he contracted the virus. “My heart was deeply saddened, but my faith was not shaken, when I learned another of our missionary doctors contracted Ebola,” SIM president Bruce Johnson said in a statement. The doctor “immediately isolated himself” and has since been transferred to the ELWA Ebola ward where he is “doing well and is in good spirits,” according to SIM. –ABC News

Infected Ebola patient escapes quarantine in search of food: Dramatic video has emerged of the moments a man infected with the deadly Ebola virus escaped from isolation and terrified shoppers in a marketplace. The man is chased by a concerned crowd after he fled from his hospital quarantine in search of food. Medical workers dressed in full protective clothing are then seen to forcefully bundle the infected man into a van in front of the crowd. International medical agency Medecins sans Frontieres says the world is “losing the battle” to contain Ebola as the United Nations warned of severe food shortages in the hardest-hit countries. MSF told a UN briefing in New York that world leaders were failing to address the epidemic and called for an urgent global biological disaster response to get aid and personnel to West Africa. “Six months into the worst Ebola epidemic in history, the world is losing the battle to contain it. Leaders are failing to come to grips with this transnational threat,” said MSF international president Joanne Liu. Governments and aid organizations are scrambling to contain the disease, which has killed more than 1500 since March. Medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said 800 more beds for Ebola patients were urgently needed in the Liberian capital Monrovia alone, while in Sierra Leone highly infectious bodies were rotting in the streets. -Yahoo

31 Ebola deaths reported in Congo: At least 31 people in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) had died of the deadly Ebola virus, Congolese Health Minister Felix Kabange said Tuesday. The outbreak started last month in the Equateur province, about 800 kilometers northeast of capital Kinshasa, prompting the authorities to seal off the affected area where more than 50 confirmed cases are currently receiving treatment, Kabange told a press conference with officials from the World Health Organization. Nearly 200 others are under surveillance over suspicion that they might have contracted the virus, he noted. The isolation of the worst affected area in the province, Boende Region, is expected to limit the spread of the outbreak, the minister said. The U.N. had already allocated $1.5 million to help the country fight Ebola. –View Times