Guinea bandits steal taxi carrying ebola-infected blood samples

Roadside bandits in Guinea stole a cooler containing blood samples that are believed to have ebola, officials said, warning of the risks and vowing tighter security measures for transport of potentially contagious cargo.

The vehicle was transporting test tubes containing blood when the roadside robbery took place on the route from Kankan prefecture in central Guinea to a test site in Gueckedou, in the south, national health officials said.

The bandits held up the minibus taxi carrying the samples from a suspected ebola patient on Wednesday, said Guinea Red Cross press officer Faya Etienne Tolno. Why they took the blood samples is unknown.

Officials appealed on national radio for the thieves to return the samples.

“We have informed the security services. If these thieves handle this blood, it will be dangerous,” said Dr Barry Moumie, who heads patient care for the national Ebola response coordination committee.

“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.

Meanwhile, a Cuban doctor who contracted ebola in Sierra Leone arrived in Switzerland for treatment and was able to walk off the transport plane, a Geneva medical official said.

Felix Baez Sarria was transported in an ambulance with a police escort to Geneva University Hospital.

Baez caught the disease when he rushed to help a patient who was falling over.

French President Francois Hollande announced he would travel to Guinea next week to help put in place efforts to counter the virus. He is the first non-African head of state to visit the area since the outbreak started.

France plans to send mobile health clinics to Guinea and pledged €170m (€214m)to help fight the disease.

Also yesterday, Doctors Without Borders flew one of its Spanish health care workers home from Mali after she accidently pricked herself with a needle used on a person suffering from ebola.