Dead Woman in Sierra Leone Tests Positive for Ebola Virus
A 67-year-old woman who died in the northern part of Sierra Leone has just recently tested positive for Ebola, according to health officials on Sunday.
Two samples from the dead body have undergone examinations and confirmed to be positive for Ebola. However, the nation's chief medical officer Brima Kargbo has stated that the samples are still undergoing further examinations in Makeni to support the initial test results.
"We are particularly concerned because Kambia has gone 50 days without a confirmed Ebola case, suggesting the possibility of an error," Kargbo says.
The last patient known to have the disease has been treated and released last Monday. The country's president has marked it as "the beginning of the end of Ebola," according to a report by Ebola Response last Wednesday.
President Ernest Bai Koroma has reiterated that the country will not be Ebola-free "until the WHO declares we have gone 42 days with no case."
Last August 26, Sierra Leone has started its 42-day countdown for declaration as Ebola-free by the World Health Organization (WHO). But with the recent death, authorities will conduct investigation whether the woman died before or after the West African country has started its countdown.
There have been no cases reported for two weeks before the death of the woman from Kambia district, making her the first to have died because of the virus since August 8.
National Ebola Response Center director OB Sisay have commented that they have deployed personnel to trace the people who have interacted with the woman.
"We should not despair as we have been expecting this," Sisay has remarked. "We need to stay focused and maintain our discipline."
WHO has also reported that some 13,000 people have been confirmed to be probable, suspected cases of the virus in Sierra Leone. More than a third of them have died of the disease; hence, considered the worst Ebola outbreak in the history.
Meanwhile, Liberia was declared free of the disease last May, but new cases have been reported after a couple of months.