“WHO commends Liberia’s government and people on their effective response to this recent re-emergence of Ebola”, says Dr Alex Gasasira, WHO Representative in Liberia.
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Health officials in Sierra Leone have confirmed a death from Ebola, hours after the World Health Organization declared the West Africa outbreak over.
Liberia had been declared Ebola free in May of 2014 but was hit again months later because of the latency of the virus. It was not clear how many people the patient had been in contact with before the virus was detected. “This will assist EVD survivors to reintegrate into family and community life, reduce stigma and minimize the risk of Ebola virus transmission”, he said.
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.
Young Kim noted that US$450 million also came from the global Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, to enable trade, investment and employment in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. The virus made two outbreaks before the third flare-up was reported on November 15 when a 10 year old tested positive and tragically died on November 23.
The case of American doctor Ian Crozier also demonstrated that the virus can also linger in ocular fluid after one of his eyes became damaged and changed colour.
Before this latest case emerged, Rick Brennan, WHO director of emergency risk assessment and humanitarian response, said at a news conference in Geneva: ‘While this is an important milestone and a very important step forward, we have to say that the job is still not done.
The tests were conducted by British health experts.
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The World Health Organization warned on Thursday that despite the absence of known transmissions of the disease in over two months, there could still be cases of Ebola in the region.
