Sierra Leone government cannot account for more than 1,000 Ebola patients: missing, dead, out of the country?

September 2014 – AFRICA – Sierra Leone’s largest newspaper, the Awareness Times, is reporting with alarm that at least 1,028 Ebola patients appear to be missing in the country, as official Ministry of Health statistics account for a smaller number of combined victims and survivors of the disease than the total number of registered cases. The Awareness Times report notes that the Ministry of Health has confirmed 2,000 cases of Ebola in the country. Its official statistics note that 540 have died, while 432 are classified as survivors. That leaves 1,042 unaccounted for cases. The report follows up on a New York Times piece in which a Western diplomat is quoted as saying that official statistics in Sierra Leone are highly untrustworthy. According to the Times, those numbers are believed to be “largely inaccurate,” rendering them borderline useless. Said the diplomat: “Even a 2-year-old child can look at them and…