Sierra Leone has warned it is a serious crime to shelter patients infected with the Ebola virus who are in hiding.<\/p>\n
The Health Ministry said several patients had discharged themselves from hospital in Kenema district, the heart of the country’s outbreak.<\/p>\n
The World Health Organization (WHO) has called for “drastic action” to contain the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, which has killed almost 400 people.<\/p>\n
It is the largest outbreak in terms of cases, deaths and geographical spread.<\/p>\n
There have been more than 600 cases in Guinea – where the outbreak started four months ago – and neighbouring Sierra Leone and Liberia. Around 60% of those infected with the virus have died.<\/p>\n
The WHO says that in Sierra Leone alone, there have been at least 46 fatalities out of a total 176 people infected with the Ebola virus.<\/p>\n
The global health body has sent 150 experts to the region to help prevent the spread of the virus. However, it has warned of the potential for “further international spread”.<\/p>\n
Dr Shek Moar Khan, who is working with Ebola patients at Kenema government hospital, said his team met resistance when trying to inform people about the disease.<\/p>\n
Health workers have been trying to explain to people in the areas affected that Ebola “is not a mystery, but simply it is a disease that somebody can acquire, and if only they could listen appropriately to our advice, then we could break the chain of transmission”, he said.<\/p>\n
On Friday, the WHO told several West African countries – Ivory Coast, Mali, Senegal and Guinea Bissau – to prepare for the possible arrival of travellers carrying the deadly virus.<\/p>\n
Ebola, a haemorrhagic fever, has no cure and is spread by contact with the fluids of infected people or animals, such as urine, sweat and blood.<\/p>\n
Most of the deaths have been centred in the southern Guekedou region of Guinea.<\/p>\n