Ebola death feared hours after all-clear
FREETOWN: Tropical disease experts in Sierra Leone scrambled yesterday to investigate a new suspected death from Ebola announced just hours after West Africa celebrated a World Health Organisation (WHO) announcement that the outbreak was over.
A 22-year-old female student was taken ill near the Guinean border and died three days ago, with an initial swab testing positive for Ebola, health officials said.
“The victim was taken ill when she was on holidays in Bamoi Luma and was taken to Magburaka, where her relatives took her to the government hospital for medical attention,” district medical officer Augustine Junisa told reporters.
“Three days later she died at home and her death was reported to the hospital officials and an initial swab test was taken which proved positive” on Thursday.
Ms Junisa said further tests would be carried out and appealed to the public in the area to remain calm.
The WHO had said on Thursday a twoyear Ebola epidemic that killed more than 11,000 people and triggered a global health alert was over, with Liberia the last country to get the all-clear.
Residents in the Magburaka, a town of around 40,000 people and the capital of the Tonkolili district, expressed their shock and distress over the announcement.
“It was not expected and came at a time when we had thought that the virus is nowhere within our land,” groundnut farmer Allieu Kamara said.
“We are really worried that death has resulted from the case but we are hopeful that the huge presence of the various key players will bring back confidence to all of us.”
The deadliest outbreak in the history of the feared tropical virus wrecked the economies of the three worst-hit west African nations after it emerged in southern Guinea in December 2013.
Sierra Leone was declared free of Ebola transmission on Nov 7 and Guinea on Dec 29.
At its peak, it devastated Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, with bodies piling up in the streets and overwhelmed hospitals recording hundreds of new cases a week.