Tensions surrounding the Ebola epidemic raging in west Africa sparked a deadly riot in Sierra leone as the World Health Organisation prepared on Wednesday to coordinate clinical trials of an experimental vaccine against the killer virus.
Some 1,600 doses of the vaccine arrived in Geneva which the WHO, under fire for what has been seen as a lethargic response to the outbreak, hopes can be fast-tracked into “real-world use”.
Meanwhile doctors said two people died in a riot the day before in eastern Sierra leone, which erupted when health workers tried to take a blood sample from a 90-year-old woman suspected of having Ebola.
Several buildings were attacked and gangs of youths roamed the streets shouting “No more Ebola!”
Sierra leone and neighbouring Guinea and liberia are the epicentre of the Ebola outbreak, the world’s worst ever, which has killed more than 4,500 people
including a handful outside the region.