Liberia records Ebola death despite being declared virus-free

Abbas Dulleh-AP Health workers wash their hands after taking a blood specimen from a child to test for the Ebola virus in an area where a 17-year old boy died from the virus on the outskirts of Monrovia, Liberia, on June 30, 2015.

All of those countries have started to see new cases recently, said Liberian Deputy Health Minister Tolbert Nyenswah in a statement Monday.

The country had been declared Ebola-free more than seven weeks ago.

“There is no need to panic”.

Experts are speculating that the latest victim could have been infected by an entirely new variation of the virus from an animal such as a fruit bat rather than by a human.

Last week, the two countries reported 20 cases total, the World Health Organization said.

“The killer has returned again”.

Ebola virusIn the marketplaces and at the school gates of downtown Monrovia, Liberians spoke Wednesday of their dread over the return of Ebola after the first case in three months emerged.

The cross-border outbreak has killed more than 11,200 people since it began in December 2013. Around 43 percent of those deaths were in Liberia, where the epidemic peaked between August and October with hundreds of cases a week.

The country was reporting more than 300 new cases a week, with uncollected and highly infectious bodies piling up in the streets of Monrovia, a sprawling, chaotic city at the best of times. Even so, health officials urge vigilance to prevent a resurgence of the disease.

The four countries reiterated their appeal for the setting up of a consolidated special fund for River Mano Union’s post-Ebola recovery programme. “Liberia is vulnerable because of Guinea and Sierra Leone“, said United Nations Ebola response mission spokeswoman Fatoumata Lejeune-Kaba.

“We heard on radio that Ebola has turned around to come back to Liberia”, said Samanta Blamo, 55, another stallholder at the Redlight market.

A military operation from long-term ally the United States, plus hundreds of millions of dollars in aid, helped Liberia control the outbreak by improving sanitation and providing safe burials. Nigeria, Senegal and Mali also recorded at least one case each.