Hospital’s errors may extend epidemic

The outbreak in Angola, the largest on record, has killed 255 of the 275 people known to be infected. The epidemic was identified on March 21. The incidents at the hospital occurred even though virus experts scrubbed down hospital wards with bleach and developed new systems to prevent lapses in infection control.

Two other mishaps took place. In one, the report said, ‘‘The body of a deceased patient was left, uncleaned and uncollected, on an open ward for more than 8 hours”, while in another case, staff put a baby into the cot of a child who had just died of Marburg virus, without disinfecting the cot.

Sloppy practices at hospitals can quickly infect many people and add weeks to the time it takes to contain an epidemic, the WHO said. —NYT