About two weeks ago, Liberia discharged what it called “it’s last Ebola patient” and started the 42-day countdown to being declared Ebola-free; these hopes have been dashed, however, as officials have confirmed a new case of Ebola, a potential addition to over 4,000 lives lost to the epidemic.
According to health officials, a woman in capital city Monrovia was diagnosed with the disease over the weekend. “This is a new case after we have gone more than 27 days without a single case. It is a setback,” government spokesman Lewis Brown said.
Doctors have not been able to determine how this new patient contracted Ebola. Reports indicate that the authorities were considering several possibilities, including possible intimate interactions with an Ebola survivor.
“In a worrying sign, she doesn’t seem to be linked to any of the people on an Ebola contacts list and says she has not travelled recently to the neighbouring infected countries of Sierra Leone and Guinea. The key thing is, if there is any transmission out there, how can we break this transmission? President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is calling the investigation team every half-hour or so to check in,” said Dr. Francis Kateh, acting head of the Liberia Ebola Case Management Team.
Of the three countries hit the hardest with Ebola, Liberia has recorded the highest number of deaths at 4,162, followed by Sierra Leone’s 3,655 and Guinea’s 2,187 deaths. There have also been six deaths in Mali, one in the US, and eight in Nigeria; however, these countries have since been declared Ebola-free.
An experimental Ebola vaccine, developed by Merck and NewLink Genetics, entered the final stage of testing in Guinea earlier this month, weeks after a similar test began in neighboring Liberia. Health officials, while hopeful that Liberia would report no new cases by mid-April, remained aware of the threat posed by the neighbouring West African nations still crisis-ridden.
“We knew very well that we were not out of the woods yet,” said Tolbert Nyenswah, Liberian Assistant Minister of Health.
By Emmanuel Iruobe
