High tension as two Ebola patients escape from treatment

Two Ebola patients slipped out of a treatment center this week in the Democratic Republic of Congo, aid agency Doctors Without Borders said, raising fears the virus may spread as health officials raced to trace anyone they may have encountered.

The families of the two helped them leave the health facility in Mbandaka during the night Monday, said Rosie Slater, a spokeswoman for Doctors Without Borders, or MSF, an acronym for the French name Médecins Sans Frontières.

One of the patients died at home, and his body was returned to the hospital for safe burial with the help of MSF teams, while the second came back to the facility Tuesday but died later that night, Slater said.