Liberia sees new Ebola death

By Evelyn Kpadeh Seagbeh

MONROVIA, Liberia

Liberia’s health authorities are investigating the source of an Ebola case reported early Friday in the capital, Monrovia.

A tweet from the Ebola Alert group on Friday morning claimed a “new positive Ebola case” had been confirmed.

Liberian Ministry of Health Ebola Incident Manager Tolbert Nyensuah told Anadolu Agency that the victim, a woman in her 30s, died upon arrival at the capital’s Redemption Hospital.

Nyensuah confirmed that tests revealed the woman had contracted the virus but said the authorities did not yet know the source of this latest infection.

Liberia was declared Ebola-free for the second time by the World Health Organization (WHO) on Sep. 3, 2015. A second clean bill of health came alongside Guinea and Sierra Leone on Jan. 14 this year.

This latest case of Ebola in Liberia suggests that the country will return to counting 42 days; if no new case of the virus is reported in that period, it will again be declared Ebola-free by the WHO.

Liberia’s newest case comes less than three weeks after neighboring Sierra Leone reported a number of deaths from Ebola.