A woman has died from Ebola in Sierra leone, the WHO confirmed on Friday, a day after it declared West Africa free from the deadly disease that killed over 11,000 people since its outbreak in December 2013.
“The case has been confirmed. The information that I have is a woman who passed away and then was tested (positive) for Ebola,” said a WHO spokesperson.
Though WHO has not yet confirmed the identity of the victim, reports indicate that the victim was a 22-year-old woman from the Guinean border who came to the northern Tonkolili district for medical help. Sierra leone was declared Ebola-free but remained under a 90-day period of enhanced surveillance to ensure no hidden chains of transmission have been missed. The country will again have to enter two 21-day incubation periods after the last survivor of Ebola tests negative twice before it can be declared Ebola-free.