“Liberia would not have been declared Ebola free in May without the knowledge and initiative of communities”, said Mr. Yett, adding that those communities are again at the forefront of reinvigorated efforts to ensure that there are no new cases of the disease there.
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The federal government has advised Nigerians to be vigilant and embrace basic hygiene in light of the fresh outbreak of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in Liberia.
Dr Mosses Massaquoi, chief leader of the country’s Ebola task force, said three villagers who had tested positive for the disease had a “history of having had dog meat together”. Two of those people have developed symptoms and have tested positive for Ebola virus. “We have to try to find out how he acquired his infection”.
According to this story in New Republic, “high profile figures including a member of Parliament, a leading religious figure, the deputy health minister and the mayor of Freetown had all participated in illegal burials”.
Liberia, worst hit by the West African Ebola outbreak past year, had been declared Ebola free on May 9 even as more cases emerged in neighbouring Sierra Leone and Guinea.
Experts warned the risk of Ebola remained in Liberia until it was eradicated in Sierra Leone and Guinea. “So the situation is localized in Liberia in one town called Nedowein“, said Nyenswah, who is also head of Liberia’s Ebola response team.
“There is no need to panic”.
“However, I am confident that our incident management system has the capability to contain it, to isolate it and keep it to where it is so that it can not go any further”.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said close to 200 people have been in contact with the teenage boy while he had symptoms of Ebola and these people are now being monitored.
A USA military operation aimed at helping Liberia’s government counter the outbreak has mostly withdrawn. “We have not got a full report yet”, Sirleaf said, in her first public pronouncement on the new outbreak.
Residents in Nedowein were baffled by the resurgence of the disease.
“We have, as of yesterday, three confirmed cases”.
Another possibility is that the virus survived among humans in remote areas.
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It is thought the Ebola virus has been living harmlessly in fruit bats for many years, building up in this population and spreading to other forest animals including chimpanzees and gorillas in Africa.
