Two Dutch doctors have been quarantined after coming into contact in Sierra Leone with three patients who later died of ebola.

The doctors, from Reeuwijk and Apeldoorn, worked at the Dutch-funded Lion Heart Medical Centre in Yele and do not yet show any symptoms of the disease, which has a three-week incubation period.

The Dutch doctors treated the three patients last week without wearing protective clothing because they were not suspected of having ebola. All three have since died, Nos reports.

Alarm

The doctors raised the alarm on Monday and were told it was better to return to the Netherlands. They will be brought back this weekend at the cost of the Dutch government.

The Yele hospital, which primarily treats people with Malaria, has been closed by the government.

Meanwhile, a 52-year-old Dutchman is in quarantine in Thailand after returning from a business trip to Nigeria with a high temperature, according to Thai paper The Nation.