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| Assistant Health Minister for Preventive Services, Tolbert Nyenswah |
A second case of Ebola
has been confirmed in Liberia months after the country had been declared free
from transmissions, health officials said Sunday.
Associated
Press report continues:
The
5-year-old son of the 30-year-old woman who died Thursday from Ebola has been
taken to a treatment centre in Monrovia, said Deputy Health Minister Tolbert
Nyenswah. Authorities are now checking everyone the woman was in contact with
and 10 health care workers from the hospital where the woman died are under
observation.
There
are strong indications the woman came from Guinea when the border was closed,
Nyenswah said. The woman, who died on arrival at a hospital Thursday, travelled
with three of her children.
"We
are investigating in both Guinea and Liberia how she entered," he said.
"But knowing the porous border we are not surprised; she entered Liberia
before getting sick or manifesting signs and symptoms."
The
new cases are a setback for Liberia, which had been declared free from
transmissions for a third time on Jan. 14. Liberia was first declared free of
the disease in May, but new cases emerged twice, forcing officials to reset the
clock in a nation where more than 4,800 people have died from the deadly virus.
The
World Health Organization has said Ebola is no longer an international health
emergency, but flare-ups, at decreasing frequency, are expected.
Flare-ups
have also occurred in Sierra Leone and in Guinea.
In
the case of Guinea, the flare-up came just months after the outbreak was
declared over. WHO said there have been eight cases of Ebola and seven deaths
in Guinea since late February. There are no known cases in Sierra Leone.
Ebola
is spread through direct contact with the bodily fluids of victims or corpses.
Ebola has killed more than
11,300 people, mostly in West Africa, since December 2013.
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