Sierra Leone Vaccinates Quarantined People Post-New Ebola Death

WHO announcement confirming the new Ebola death came just after West Africa celebrated the end of the outbreak with Liberia being declared free of the disease.

After a new Ebola death, Sierra Leone has quarantined 100 people, now the authorities have announced a vaccination program for them.

"Vaccination has began in places the victim, a 22-year-old student, visited before her death on January 12 in the northern town of Magburaka, Sierra Leone's head of medical services, doctor Brima Kargbo, told AFP.

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A 22-year-old woman died in the northern Magburaka township in the district of Tonkolili after testing positive for the tropical fever.

‘Quarantined people in Sierra Leone have been vaccinated using the VSV-EBOV vaccine, which has already been tested in Guinea, one of the three countries worst affected by the outbreak.’

He said they were using the VSV-EBOV vaccine, which has already been tested in Guinea -- one of the three countries worst affected by the outbreak, along with Liberia and Sierra Leone -- and was also used in September in a town in northern Sierra Leone under quarantine.

This vaccine is the first to have proven effective, according to experts.

The operation will last "until all the contacts are vaccinated", Kargbo added.

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Since January 19, 22 people have been vaccinated in Magburaka and five in Kambia while figures were not yet available for the town of Lunsar, where the dead student usually lived.

According to medical sources, the young woman fell ill at the start of January while on holiday in Baomoi Luma, near the border with Guinea.

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The Ebola outbreak infected almost 29,000 people and claimed 11,315 lives, according to official data which most experts accept represents a significant underestimate.

The World Health Organization announcement confirming she had tested positive for Ebola came just a day after west Africa celebrated the end of the outbreak with Liberia becoming the last of the three worst-hit countries in the region to be declared free of the disease.

Among the hundreds of identified contacts, "nobody has shown any sign or symptom of the virus yet," Kargbo said.

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Ebolavirus can persist in some Ebola survivors even after they have fully recovered. Since March of last year, there have been 10 minor flare-ups.

In Lunsar, however, some were opposed to receiving the vaccine and had refused to allow health teams into their homes, according to residents.

"Some of those quarantined barricaded their homes saying the vaccine was harmful and could lead to other ailments," one of them said.

The Ebola outbreak, which began in Guinea in December 2013, killed more than 11,000 people and was the deadliest outbreak of the virus yet.

Source-AFP