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MSF
volunteers work during the Ebola outbreak in August AFP/Getty Images
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Sierra Leone declared
Friday that it would stop the mandatory testing of all dead bodies for the
Ebola virus, lifting a restriction put in place at the end of an outbreak that
claimed thousands of lives.
AFP
report continues:
The
World Health Organization said on March 17 there were no more known cases of
the virus in the country, which surfaced in neighbouring Guinea before
spreading to Sierra Leone in May 2014.
Swabs
of saliva were ordered to be systematically taken from any recently deceased person
from November 2015, as part of a period of heightened surveillance following
the successful containment of the virus.
From
now on however, the director of Sierra Leone’s Public Health Emergency
Operation Centre Foday Dafae said “only deaths that meet the criteria set by
the Ministry of Health will be investigated and swabbed”, rather than every
single corpse.
“We
still want people to report all deaths so that we can (maintain) surveillance
and monitor all infectious diseases, which is a key to prevent any outbreak materializing,” he cautioned.
Ebola,
one of the world’s deadliest viruses, is spread through direct contact with the
bodily fluids of an infected person showing symptoms such as fever or vomiting.
The
virus is infectious even after a victim has died, putting at risk people caring
for the sick or handling corpses.
The
disease is best contained by limiting exposure through patient isolation and
safe burials.
“We
are now focusing our attention to step up working with communities to prevent
any future outbreak,” Dafae said.
The epidemic infected a reported 28,600 people across the three hardest-hit nations, half of which were recorded in Sierra Leone, with the rest in Liberia and Guinea.
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