Health officials in Sierra Leone on Sunday confirmed an Ebola death less than a week after the country’s last known patient was discharged from a hospital.
Samples from the body of a 67-year-old woman who died recently in Kambia district in the country’s north came back positive for the deadly disease, World Health Organization reported. A week ago, the last known Ebola patient was released from a hospital in Sierra Leone, a milestone that allowed the West African nation to begin a 42-day countdown towards being declared free of Ebola transmission. The National Ebola Response Center has deployed teams to conduct surveillance and trace people who were in contact with the woman, said OB Sisay, the center’s director. The worst Ebola outbreak in history has killed nearly 4,000 people in Sierra Leone out of more than 13,500 confirmed, probable and suspected cases, according to the WHO.
