MONROVIA, Liberia — Dozens of people quarantined for Ebola monitoring in western Liberia are threatening to break out of isolation because they have no food, the West African nation’s state radio reported Thursday.
Forty-three people were put in quarantine after four people died of Ebola in Jenewonda, a town in an impoverished corner of Grand Cape Mount County near the Sierra Leone border, the Liberia Broadcasting System said.
It quoted those quarantined as saying that the United Nations World Food Program apparently has stopped providing food to people affected by Ebola in the area. But a program representative said the agency hadn’t been working there.
‘‘WFP in Liberia heard about this community being isolated only two days ago via the radio, and staff immediately began organizing a mission to bring food to the quarantined people,’’ spokesman Alexis Masciarelli stated in an e-mail to the Associated Press.
The program’s logistics unit was to deliver food to the community Thursday, he said.
There are no trucks in Grand Cape Mount County so food needs to be driven in from Monrovia, he said, adding that the UN program will verify reports with authorities and look into what is going on.
‘‘We need to keep working with government and partners to identify the communities in need as quickly as possible,’’ he said.
Liberia is the hardest hit of three West African nations being ravaged by Ebola. The latest figures published Wednesday by the UN’s World Health Organization show the country has at least 4,665 infected people and 2,705 have died there, with the numbers probably higher. Overall, it said, the disease has killed 4,877 people and infected 9,936, primarily in Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone.
Meanwhile, Mali reported its first case of Ebola late Thursday, marking a major setback for West African efforts to contain the deadly virus.
Also Thursday, Rwanda reversed a decision to screen travelers from the United States and Spain, one day after announcing the measure as part of its efforts to prevent the spread of Ebola in the country.
The fear of Ebola in Guinea has kept patients and health workers, including doctors, from a hospital that is serving as a treatment center in the capital, Conakry.
Earlier this month, President Alpha Conde called on retired doctors to join the fight against Ebola.