WHO Confirms Second New Case of Ebola in Sierra Leone

West Africa last week declared an end to the ravaging Ebola epidemic. However, a new case of Ebola has been confirmed in Sierra Leone, the second since the declaration, reported the World Health Organization (WHO). WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic said, "There was a new confirmed case. The new case was the aunt of 22-year-old student Marie Jalloh, who was determined to have died of the virus on January 12, 2016. The 38-year-old woman was a primary caregiver during the young woman's illness. She had developed symptoms of the deadly virus on Wednesday, January 20, 2016, while she was being monitored at a quarantine facility. She is being treated now."

Sierra Leone health ministry spokesman Sidi Yahyah Tunis also confirmed the new case, saying that the aunt had helped wash Jalloh's body to prepare it for an Islamic burial. Tunis said, "We are expecting other cases particularly from those who washed the body before the burial of Marie."

Ebola is spread among humans via the bodily fluids of recently deceased victims and carriers showing symptoms, including vomiting, diarrhea and - in the worst cases - massive internal and external bleeding.

Ebola is at its most infectious as people are dying or in the bodies of those who have died from the virus.

"We are monitoring other people now quarantined to see whether they would manifest signs and symptoms of the disease during the 21-day incubation period," Tunis said.

The Ebola outbreak, which began in Guinea in December 2013, has killed more than 11,300 people, mainly in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, marking the deadliest outbreak of the virus yet.

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The resurgence of new cases in Sierra Leone comes after west Africa a week ago celebrated the end of the outbreak after Liberia became the last of the three worst-hit countries in the region to be declared Ebola-free.

Sierra Leone had received the all-clear November 2015, and Guinea in December, 2015.

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Source-AFP