More cases of the deadly virus were reported in Sierra Leone than any other country during the deadliest Ebola outbreak in history.
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Though sometimes it can remain in the semen of a small number of male survivors for as long as 1 year due to which there are chances of transmission of Ebola virus to intimate partners.
She came from the Northern Kambia District and went to the Northern Tonkolili District for medical attention, he said.
Authorities are tracing the woman’s contacts and have dispatched teams to the area for investigations, the AP reported.
According to the report, the country has never reported Ebola transmission cases for 42 consecutive days and the people were tested negative of infection.
“Our level of preparedness remains high as we did not stand down or dismantle any of the structures that we had used to fight the virus before”.
“WHO commends Liberia’s government and people on their effective response to this recent re-emergence of Ebola”, said Dr Alex Gasasira, WHO Representative in Liberia. Guinea was declared Ebola-free toward the end of December.
Sierra Leone is in a 90-day period of enhanced surveillance following a declaration in November of the end of Ebola transmission in the country.
The virus killed a total of 11,315 people including 4,000 in Sierra Leone, and sickened almost 29,000.
The WHO declared Sierra Leone free of Ebola in early November, and Guinea achieved the same status in late December.
The WHO and others have been roundly criticized for responding too slowly at the beginning of the outbreak, a fumbling that experts say ultimately cost lives across West Africa.
“This really reflects what we have been saying…that there is a risk, and this outbreak is in a critical phase right now where we are moving from case management to management of risk”, World Health Organization spokesman Tarik Jasarevic told reporters in Geneva.
Dr. Bruce Aylward, who heads WHO’s Ebola response efforts, said the woman was not buried safely because local health workers had not identified her as a suspected Ebola case.
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World Health Organization does not rule out the chances of Ebola resurfacing in the three countries ever again – after all, about 10 flare-ups have been witnessed in the three countries since they were first thought to be free of the epidemic.
