A Liberian has died of Ebola in the first recorded case since the country at the heart of the epidemic was declared free of the virus on 9 May, said the country’s deputy health minister, Tolbert Nyenswah.
“A 17-year-old corpse was tested positive for Ebola virus. This took place in Margibi county. There is no need to panic. The corpse has been buried and our contact tracing has started,” said Nyenswah on Tuesday, Reuters reported.
The case is a setback for Liberia, officially declared Ebola-free six weeks ago by the World Health Organisation. However, the country has remained vigilant because of the continuing incidence of the virus in neighbouring Guinea and Sierra Leone.
According to the country’s chief medical officer, Bernice Dahn, the new case was far from the border of either country in Dolo Town, Margibi county. The case could be linked to travel or to a fresh outbreak where the virus passes from an animal to human.
Scientists have said the first Ebola victim, a two-year-old boy from Guinea believed to have triggered the current outbreak, may have been infected by playing in a hollow tree housing a colony of bats.
In a statement tweeted by the ministry of communications, Dahn said the new case was “testing our capacity and resilience to fight the spread”. She added: “We know how Ebola spreads and we know how to stop it, we must keep vigilance.”
According to the latest UN mission for Ebola emergency eesponse (Unmeer) report, the virus has so far infected 27,479 and killed 11,217.
Cases have stalled at between 20 and 27 a week and are largely being found in the coastal border between Guinea and Sierra Leone. Unmeer says the cases in Sierra Leone have been geographically confined to two districts, Kambia and Port Loko, but the transmission chain has expanded in Guinea.
“A new confirmed case in Liberia is unfortunate because Liberians have been very serious about maintaining prevention measures, like washing hand stations in public places. But hopefully their experience with the crisis puts them in a better position to contain transmission,” Fatoumata Lejeune-Kaba, spokeswoman for Unmeer, told Associated Press on Twitter.
In May WHO announced Liberia had had no new cases of the disease in the previous 42 days – twice the incubation period of the virus.
