Sierra Leone has 2nd Ebola case after epidemic thought over

One of the 109 contacts isolated following the death of 22-year old Mariama Jalloh had tested positive for the Ebola virus disease, said Sidi Yaya Tunis, spokesman for the Emergency Operations Center, which is responsible for the country’s anti Ebola effort.

West Africa had recently declared the end of what was the world’s worst Ebola outbreak and killed 11,300 people in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone in West Africa since December 2013.

The 38-year-old woman “was a primary caregiver during the young woman’s illness”, he said, adding that she had developed symptoms of the deadly virus on Wednesday while she was being monitored at a quarantine facility.

“We are expecting other cases particularly from those who washed the body before the burial of Marie”, he told reporters.

Sierra Leone has confirmed another case of Ebola, days after the first case was reported.

“We are now at a critical period in the Ebola epidemic as we move from managing cases and patients to managing the residual risk of new infections”, said Dr Bruce Aylward, WHO’s Special Representative for the Ebola Response.

Officials in Freetown have urged the public not to panic and to work together to avoid any further spread.

She replied: “The work that happened at community level proved pivotal in enabling us to tackle Ebola, both by steadily ensuring that victims of Ebola were buried safely and did not pass the virus on, and by improving surveillance”.