adminFreetown – The World Health Organization confirmed Friday a new death from Ebola in Sierra Leone just a day after west Africa celebrated the end of an outbreak which killed 11 000 people.
A 22-year-old woman was taken ill near the Guinean border on Thursday last week and died on Tuesday, local health officials said as the WHO issued a statement from Geneva confirming she was killed by Ebola.
Augustine Junisa, the chief local medical officer, told reporters the student became ill while on holiday in the village of Bamoi Luma and was taken by relatives to hospital.
The official said the woman “died at home” but did not say why she had been released from the hospital in Magburaka, the capital of the northern Tonkolili district.
“The swab test on the victim after her death was done three times and all proved positive,” Langoba Kelly of Sierra Leone’s office of national security told reporters in Freetown, appealing for calm.
Kelly said investigators were fanning out across Tonkolili to track down anyone who may have had contact with the victim and family members had been placed in isolation.
The WHO had said Thursday a two-year Ebola outbreak that killed 11 315 people and triggered a global health alert was over, with Liberia the last country to get the all-clear.
However, the organisation also warned there could be “possible flare-ups” of the disease. – News24
Bongani Ndlovu