Reuters, Monrovia :
A Liberian has died of Ebola in the first recorded case since the country at the heart of an epidemic was declared free of the virus on May 9, Deputy Health Minister Tolbert Nyenswah said today.
The body of a 17-year-old tested positive for Ebola in Margibi County, the deputy minister said. Margibi is a rural area close to the capital Monrovia, and is home to the country’s main international airport.
“There is no need to panic. The corpse has been buried and our contact tracing has started work,” Nyenswah said.
The case represents a setback for Liberia, which was declared Ebola free on May 9 after going 42 days without a new case.
Authorities will now have to trace and potentially isolate every person the victim came into contact with while sick.
A total of 11,207 people died from Ebola in Liberia, neighboring Guinea and Sierra Leone since the outbreak began in December 2013, according to a World Health Organization (WHO)report on June 24.
Around 43 per cent of those deaths were in Liberia, where the outbreak peaked between last August and October with hundreds of cases a week.
Health workers say vigilance is needed if the outbreak is to be eliminated.
A total of 12 new confirmed cases were reported in Guinea and eight in Sierra Leone in the seven days to 21 June, according to WHO figures.
World Health Organization spokesman Tarik Jasarevic told reporters in Geneva the UN health body had been informed of the case.
The epidemic killed more than 4,800 Liberians before the WHO declared the country Ebola-free on May 9, 42 days after the last confirmed case was buried.
That period is double the number of days the virus requires to incubate, and WHO hailed its eradication as an enormous development in the long crisis.
The United States and several international organisations had urged caution, however, with White House spokesman Josh Earnest warning the world not to forget that the outbreak was still in Sierra Leone and Guinea.
