Mbandaka — Three patients infected with the deadly Ebola virus escaped from a hospital holding them in quarantine in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) city of Mbandaka, an aid group said, as medics raced to stop the disease spreading in the teeming river port. Two of the patients got out on Monday but were found dead a day later, said Henri Gray, the head of the Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) mission in the city. Another left on Saturday, but was found alive the same day and is now under observation, Gray said. "This is a hospital. It’s not a prison. We can’t lock everything," he said. The report came as the World Health Organisation warned that the fight to stop Democratic Republic of Congo’s ninth confirmed outbreak of the hemorrhagic fever had reached a critical point. "The next few weeks will really tell if this outbreak is going to expand to urban areas or if we’re going to be able to keep it under control," WHO’s emergency response chief Peter Salama told ministers and di...
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