Crowd attacks clinic housing aid workers

conakry, guinea » A crowd angry about an Ebola outbreak that has killed 86 people across Guinea attacked a center where victimswere being held in isolation, prompting an international aid group to evacuate its team, officials said Saturday.

The violence took place in the southern town of Macenta, where at least 14 people have died since the outbreak last month. The mob who descended upon the clinic accused Doctors Without Borders health workers of bringing Ebola to Guinea, where there had never previously been any cases.

Some young people threwrocks at the aid workers, although no one was seriously hurt, said SamTaylor, a spokesman forDoctorsWithout Borders.“We understand very well that people are afraid because it is a new disease here,” Taylor said. “But these are not favorableworking conditions, sowe are suspending our activities.”

Patients are continuing to receive treatment from Guinean health ministry personnel, Taylor said.

Guinea’s government condemned the attack, saying that DoctorsWithout Borders and other international aid groups are key to stopping the spread of Ebola.

“The international community has rapidly mobilized to help us in these difficult moments with considerable medical support and specialists on the ground at the disease’s epicenter,” the statement said. “That’s why the government is calling on people to stay calm and allow our partners to help us eradicate this epidemic.”

There is no cure for Ebola, which causes fever and severe bleeding, and up to 90 percent of patients die fromthe strain of the virus that has been detected in Guinea. Some patients are held for observation, and then transferred to another area if they are confirmed to have Ebola.

Eighty-six people have died so far from Ebola in Guinea, and two other confirmed deaths have been reported in neighboring Liberia. Authorities in Mali are also investigating three suspected cases of Ebola, and they have sent samples overseas for testing.

Experts say that Ebola is carried by fruit bats living inWest Africa, and that it could have been transmitted to a humanwho ate a bat or another animal thatwas bittenby a bat.