17 Ebola missing in Liberia

Health officials on Monday combed Monrovia's West Point slum looking for the 17 people who left the medical center set up in a local high school after it was attacked by club-wielding youths on Saturday.

There was no word on the whereabouts of any of the victims on the run Monday, but some reports suggested that at least some of them had left the slum entirely.

Some of those who raided the facility were reported to have shouted "there is no Ebola," reflecting rumors that the disease is not real and was a piece of fiction made up by the West.

Information Minister Lewis Brown said the raid on the center was a severe setback in the battle to get to grips with Ebola and not just because of the 17 missing patients.

"All those hooligans who looted the center are now probable carriers of the disease... They took mattresses and bedding that were soaked with fluids from the patients. To quarantine the area could be one of the solutions," Brown told the AFP news agency.

Ebola is spread through direct contact with the bodily fluids of infected people.

Call for exit screening

Meanwhile, the World Health Organization has called on the Ebola-affected countries of West Africa to begin screening all passengers leaving through international airports, sea ports or major ground crossings.

"There should be no international travel of Ebola contacts or cases, unless the travel is part of an appropriate medical evacuation," a statement released by the United Nations agency said.

The current epidemic of the disease in West Africa is the worst since the virus first appeared in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1976, having claimed a total of at least 1,145 lives. According to WHO figures released last week, at 413, Liberia's death toll is the highest, followed by Guinea, with 380 deaths and 348 in Sierra Leone.

pfd/se (AP, AFP )