Two die in Sierra Leone riot sparked by Ebola tests

Two people died in a riot in Sierra Leone sparked when health workers struggling to contain the Ebola epidemic tried to take a blood sample from an elderly woman, doctors told AFP on Wednesday.

A machete-wielding mob clashed with security personnel in the eastern town of Koidu and then went on a rampage on Tuesday, after preventing a medical team from taking the blood from the 90-year-old mother of a youth leader, doctors from the local government hospital said.

The woman, who had been suspected to be infected with Ebola, had died and was thought to have high blood pressure.

Sierra Leone is one of three west African nations hardest hit by the deadly Ebola epidemic, the world’s worst ever.

At least 1,200 people have died in the country, from 3,410 infections, as of October 14, according to latest World Health Organization figures.

Globally, more than 4,500 people have died, most of them in Sierra Leone and neighbouring Liberia and Guinea.

Health teams are working desperately in those African states to try to slow the alarming spread of the virus, which is fatal in most cases and has no vaccine nor sure treatment.

Tuesday’s unrest erupted when a crowd holding machetes and shovels stopped one team in the diamond mining town of Koidu from testing the elderly woman.

When the health workers called in security guards for protection, the violence grew into a riot, resulting in the two deaths and 10 people being wounded, the doctors the Koidu Government Hospital said.

“Two bodies are now at the mortuary. I cannot say whether they have bullet wounds or what caused their deaths as the corpses have not yet been examined,” said one of the doctors who asked not to be identified.

He said a number of people including security personnel had been brought in with non life-threatening wounds.