Health officials are tracing anyone who may have had contact with the deceased. However, WHO announced the country is free from the disease after the mandatory 42 days of no incidents in the country.
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Sierra Leone is still in a 90-day period of enhanced surveillance following the declaration on 7 November 2015 of the end of Ebola transmission in the country.
The WHO declared an end to the deadliest Ebola outbreak ever after no new cases emerged in Liberia.
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This is the third time Liberia has been declared Ebola-free.
In his speech celebrating the premature all-clear announcement, United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon warned the world to be alert for a return of the virus this year.
The tests reinforce concerns about flare-ups of the virus that has killed more than 11,300 people since 2013, nearly all of which were in Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia.
A country is declared to be free of human-to-human transmission once two 21-day incubation periods pass since the last known Ebola case has tested negative for Ebola twice.
The risk of flare-ups stems from the ability of the virus to persist for months even in those who survive Ebola, including in breast milk, semen and other body fluids.
From a Guinean infant who was the first victim, the epidemic quickly spread into neighbouring Liberia and Sierra Leone, notching up more deaths than all other Ebola outbreaks combined.
“While this is an important milestone and a very important step forward, we have to say that the job is still not done”, said Rick Brennan, WHO director of emergency risk assessment and humanitarian response, at a news conference in Geneva on Thursday. The country was pronounced Ebola-free in November by the World Health Organization, but it was only Thursday that neighboring Liberia received a similar assessment.
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Besides safe burials, another key response step in the outbreak region has been to test for Ebola in all people who die as a means of identifying any unknown cases or transmission chains. Immune-protected areas of the body such as the testes and the eyes can harbor the virus, perhaps for as long as 1 year.
