 |
|
The
Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Brima Kargbo making statement (Image source:
africanyoungvoices.com)
|
The body of a woman who died in Sierra
Leone has tested positive for the Ebola virus, less than a week after the last
person confirmed to have had the disease was released from hospital, health
officials said. The new
death, if confirmed, would represent a setback for efforts to end an 18-month
regional epidemic that has infected more than 28,000 people and killed more
than a third of them.
In the
latest case, a 67-year-old woman from the Kambia District along Sierra Leone's
border with Guinea, died on Saturday.
Sierra
Leone's chief medical officer Brima Kargbo told Reuters that two samples tested
in Kambia had tested positive for Ebola. However, he said further tests were
being carried out in Makeni, the main town in the Northern Province, and in the
capital Freetown.
Reuters report continues:
"We
are particularly concerned because Kambia has gone 50 days without a confirmed
Ebola case, suggesting the possibility of an error," Kargbo said.
He added
that the woman worked as a trader, though people who knew her said she had not
travelled recently. She now becomes the first new case in the country since
Aug. 8.
Sierra
Leone released what had been its last confirmed Ebola patient from hospital on
Monday and began a 42-day countdown to being declared free of the virus.
During
the course of the epidemic, the outbreak has ebbed only to flare back again.
Liberia was declared Ebola-free in May but a fresh cluster of cases appeared
nearly two months later.
Liberia's
last case was subsequently discharged on July 23.
Scientists say sexual
transmission is the most likely explanation for the resurgence in Liberia since
the virus can live on in semen beyond the usual 21-day incubation period.
No comments:
Post a Comment