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Freetown — Sierra Leone on Wednesday berated the “selfish and shameful” behaviour of people risking a resurgence of the Ebola virus by flouting quarantine restrictions, as authorities announced a spike in cases.

The country’s National Ebola Response Centre (NERC) spoke out as the World Health Organisation (WHO) revealed the west African nation and its neighbour Guinea had seen cases quadruple in a week.

Palo Conteh, head of the government-run NERC, told reporters in the capital Freetown a man who went on the run despite being under quarantine was responsible for the enforced isolation of 52 people.

“Some of the 52 may be infected because of a selfish and shameful act of a small number of people,” he said.

Saidu Conteh escaped a sealed-off section of Freetown’s densely-populated Moa Wharf slum after his girlfriend died of Ebola, said the NERC chief, who is no relation.

He evaded capture for a week but died in a treatment unit on Sunday, two days after being tracked down at another residence in Freetown by expert Ebola contact tracers.

Palo Conteh said health officials had removed 52 people from their building and were monitoring them at an isolation unit on the outskirts of the capital.

The group includes the escapee’s mother and a nurse who was said to have been massaging him and washing his clothes, despite repeated government warnings that Ebola spreads through physical contact.

“You will not survive by running away from quarantine or by caring for the sick in hiding,” the NERC chief said. — Al Jazeera