What goes around, comes around

In another homo-simpleton update, it would be hard to say the punishment fits the crime in this case, even though the punishment was self-inflicted.

It seems some prospecting thief in Uganda thought it a good idea to pinch a cell phone from a patient in an isolation ward. He soon realized he was a victim of his own larcenous behavior as he started to exhibit signs of the Ebola virus.

Ebola, in case you have been living in the mountains, is a deadly fever that kills by causing people to bleed profusely.  Uganda’s Daily Monitor newspaper reports that the 41-year-old thief grabbed the $23 phone from a patient at Kagadi Hospital.  The hospital was housing several people who were infected from the most recent Ebola outbreak in the country.

The patient, who recently succumbed to the disease, reported the phone missing shortly before he passed, according to a report in the Global Post.  With the patient dead, can the culprit be far behind?

It seems that investigators were able to track the thief, who used the phone to call friends. It wasn’t long, they said, before the thief started showing symptoms of the Ebola virus. Ironically, he checked himself into the same hospital where he had stolen the phone in the first place. Reportedly, doctors say they are treating him.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says the Ebola virus can cause Ebola hemorrhagic fever, a highly contagious sickness.  Symptoms include rash, diarrhea, vomiting, and bleeding from every orifice.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni warned citizens to refrain from physical contact, including shaking hands and casual sex, as those are ways in which the virus can be passed between people.  It follows that stealing personal items from those afflicted with the disease may also put you in jeopardy of contracting the dreaded disease.

It was unknown whether the virus could be transmitted via the cell phone, other than from using one that belonged to an infected individual.  Current virus protection software is unlikely to protect users; it is also likely that the virus can be contracted from toilet seats used by infected people.