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Ebola case in Liberia confirmed by WHO Liberian official urges calm as three new Ebola cases confirmed
(about 7 hours later)
Ebola has surfaced in Liberia, which was declared free of the deadly virus in September, according to the World Health Organisation. Three new cases of Ebola have been confirmed in Liberia, the country’s health ministry and the World Health Organisation have said, two months after the country was declared free of the deadly virus.
“There is one confirmed case,” said WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic, without providing further details. An official in the west African state called for calm and insisted health workers had the means to contain the outbreak. “We are calling on the population not to panic because we have people capable of putting the situation under control,” Sorbor George, a health ministry spokesman, said. “Let everyone take the necessary measures to prevent the virus from spreading.”
The west African country, where thousands died at the height of the epidemic last year, was first declared Ebola free in May, only to see the fever resurface six weeks later, and again in September. The WHO said the first confirmed case in the latest outbreak was a 10-year-old boy who fell sick on 14 November and was admitted to hospital in the capital, Monrovia, three days later. The other two patients were related to the boy.
Since the beginning of the outbreak, Liberia has registered more than 10,600 cases and 4,808 deaths, the UN health agency said this week. Related: UN special envoy says Ebola flare-ups could continue for some time
According to the latest toll by WHO, the epidemic that started in December 2013 has left more than 11,300 dead, mainly in the west African states of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, out of almost 29,000 cases. The organisation’s Ebola response chief, Bruce Aylward, said initial investigations had not produced a confirmed link between the 10-year-old and another carrier of the virus, as health officials tried to figure out the origins of the case.
Friday’s news comes days after the Médecins Sans Frontières announced the last known Ebola case in Guinea, a three-week-old girl, had recovered. Guinea must wait 42 days with no cases before being declared Ebola free. The child has no known history of contact with a survivor or having been at the funeral of an Ebola victim, Aylward said, a reference to the fact that secretions from such corpses were highly contagious.
“I’m sure as we start to move forward, we will see more clarity,” the UN official said, adding that Liberia’s emergency response system had improved drastically since the initial outbreak that wreaked havoc across parts of west Africa.
Aylward said two of the boy’s siblings had reported feeling ill over the past two days, but there was no confirmation they were the new confirmed cases. “His father and mother had transient illnesses in the last few weeks, so obviously that could be one of the lines of transmission,” he said.
Liberia, where thousands died at the height of the epidemic last year, was declared Ebola free in May, only to see the virus resurface six weeks later, and again in September.
Related: After Ebola, we can start getting angry about the buses again | Saah Milllimono
Since the beginning of the outbreak last year, Liberia has registered more than 10,600 cases and 4,808 deaths, according to a report by the UN health agency this week.
The epidemic that started in December 2013 had left more than 11,300 dead, mainly in the west African states of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, out of almost 29,000 cases, the WHO said.
The announcement on Friday came days after the last known Ebola case in Guinea, a three-week-old girl, was declared cured on Monday, starting the clock on a 42-day countdown before the country could be declared Ebola-free.
Sierra Leone was declared to have beaten the virus this month.Sierra Leone was declared to have beaten the virus this month.