Ebola Virus returns Back to Liberia Four Months After Clearance

Ebola Virus returns Back to Liberia Four Months After Clearance

The deadly Virus Ebola is confirmed to have returned back to Liberia after the corpse of a 17-year-old boy has tested positive for Ebola Virus in the country, Liberia's deputy Health Minister reported this on Monday. He added that no other case had been reported.
Tolbert Nyenswah, who is also head of the country’s Ebola response,made known to newsmen that the teenager died on June 24 in Nedowein, a town situated close to the country’s international airport, about 48 kilometres south of the capital, and was given a safe burial the next day.

Nyenswah said: “We have said over and over again that there was the possibility of a resurgence of the virus in Liberia. But our capacity is very strong.”

The deadly virus, which has killed over 11,100 people mostly in West Africa in its worst outbreak ever, is hanging on stubbornly in Guinea, where the Ebola outbreak was first reported in March 2014, and in Sierra Leone.




Liberia had been the country hardest hit by last year’s Ebola outbreak in West Africa. The World Health Organisation, WHO, declared Liberia Ebola-free on May 9 after the country went 42 days without reporting a case.

It was not known how the 17-year-old contracted Ebola. The town where the teenager died is far from the borders with Sierra Leone and Guinea, so Nyenswah said they were investigating whether his case might be linked to travel.

Specimens of the 17-year-old dead boy were taken before burial, and the tests later came back positive.

Nyenswah said. “the only complication is that the person died before we tested the body as part of our surveillance system of testing living and dead people,”

Nyenswah said teams are already doing contact tracing in the Nedowein area.