“We have two confirmed cases today in Liberia”, Dr. Moses Massaquoi, case-management team leader for Liberia’s Ebola task force, said Wednesday.
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WHO, in its weekly update on Ebola, reported that on 29 June, routine surveillance detected a confirmed case of Ebola in Margibi County, which was the first new confirmed case in Liberia since 20 March.
An internal Liberian health report showed that Mr Memaigar had attended school, visited a local clinic and travelled to his father’s house in a nearby village in the week before he died.
Liberia’s authorities quarantined the area after the teenager’s death and said his funeral was carried out safely.
It is not clear how he was infected and the information was not made public until Tuesday.
Liberia, along with Sierra Leone and Guinea, is one of the countries hit hardest by the virus that has killed more than 11,000 people.
Fatoumata Lejeune-Kaba, spokesperson for the UN Ebola response mission, said the resurgence of the virus should not be a surprise.
The United Nations official added that Liberia’s response capacity will be tested “at a time when worldwide health organisations have wound down their presence in the affected countries”.
It’s possible that the boy had contact with an infected animal, such as a nonhuman primate or a bat, Goodman said.
Also commenting on the latest outbreak of the disease, US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said yesterday in a video conference watched across West Africa that the new Ebola death was a signpost that the business of combating Ebola was yet to be concluded.
With health officials not discovering the teenager had Ebola until after he passed away means that he might have passed the virus to family or friends. In the early days, there was also the problem that the behavior of teams given the extremely hazardous job of removing and burying highly infectious bodies was often brusque and insensitive.
As long as there is Ebola in Sierra Leone and Guinea, Liberians will find it nearly impossible to sustain a zero case of Ebola in their country. Neighbouring African countries Sierra Leone and Guinea still have Ebola cases, but it is still unknown if the victim traveled to these nations.
“We can’t let this be the case that brings back a major outbreak to Liberia”, says Graaff. More than a million people get malaria every year in Liberia.
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Nyenswah said health officials were monitoring 175 people believed to have come into contact with the three cases, though none had yet exhibited symptoms of the disease. Their message now is the same as when the country was first gripped by the Ebola epidemic – people should avoid panic. We have created a timeline to track the development of the virus’ intercontinental spread.
