There are conflicting reports over the fate of 17 suspected Ebola patients who vanished after a quarantine centre in the Liberian capital was looted.
An angry mob attacked the centre in Monrovia's densely populated West Point township on Saturday evening.
A senior health official said all of the patients had been moved to another medical facility.
But a reporter told the BBC that 17 had escaped while 10 others were taken away by their families.
More than 400 people are known to have died from the virus in Liberia, out of a total of 1,145 deaths recorded in West Africa by the World Health Organization this year.
"This is one of the stupidest things I have ever seen in my life," he said. "All between the houses you could see people fleeing with items looted from the patients."
The looting spree, he added, could spread the virus to the whole of the West Point area.
Described as a slum, there are an estimated 50,000 people in the West Point neighbourhood.
The Ebola epidemic began in Guinea in February and has since spread to Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria.
One Nigerian doctor has survived the disease and was sent home on Saturday night, said Health Minister Onyebuchi Chukwu in a statement.
Mr Chukwu said five other people infected with Ebola had almost fully recovered.
On Friday, the death toll rose to 1,145 after the WHO said 76 new deaths had been reported in the two days to 13 August. There have been 2,127 cases reported in total.
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