Ebola death reported in Sierra Leone ... right after WHO declares Ebola outbreak 'over'

Saturday, January 23, 2016 by: J. D. Heyes
Tags: Ebola, outbreak, Sierra Leone

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(NaturalNews) The deadly outbreak of Ebola in Africa has officially been declared over in most of the countries where it was ravaging the population. One of those was Sierra Leone.

In fact, that designation came just a few days ago. And within a day of the government making the announcement, someone else died from the Ebola virus.

As reported by the United Nations' World Health Organization (WHO) and the BBC, officials confirmed the death just hours after the West Africa outbreak was declared over.

"Today, WHO declares the end of the most recent outbreak of Ebola virus disease in Liberia and says all known chains of transmission have been stopped in West Africa," the UN said in a Jan. 14 press release. "But the Organization says the job is not over, more flare-ups are expected and that strong surveillance and response systems will be critical in the months to come.

"Liberia was first declared free of Ebola transmission in May 2015, but the virus was re-introduced twice since then, with the latest flare-up in November," the press release continued. "Today's announcement comes 42 days (two 21-day incubation cycles of the virus) after the last confirmed patient in Liberia tested negative for the disease 2 times."

Sierra Leone was declared virus-free Nov. 7. The region as a whole was cleared after Liberia made its recent announcement, the BBC noted. Tests on someone who died in the northern part of the country came back positive, a spokesman for an Ebola test center told the British news agency. The spokesman, Sidi Yahya Tunis, said the patient died in the Tonkolili district, where he had traveled from Kambia, close to the Guinea border.

'Chains hard to break'

More flare-ups are expected, officials noted.

The UN press release further noted:

"WHO cautions that the 3 countries remain at high risk of additional small outbreaks of Ebola, like the most recent one in Liberia. To date, 10 such flare-ups have been identified that were not part of the original outbreak, and are likely the result of the virus persisting in survivors even after recovery. Evidence shows that the virus disappears relatively quickly from survivors, but can remain in the semen of a small number of male survivors for as long as 1 year, and in rare instances, be transmitted to intimate partners."

"We are now at a critical period in the Ebola epidemic as we move from managing cases and patients to managing the residual risk of new infections," said Dr. Bruce Aylward, WHO's Special Representative for the Ebola Response. "The risk of re-introduction of infection is diminishing as the virus gradually clears from the survivor population, but we still anticipate more flare-ups and must be prepared for them. A massive effort is underway to ensure robust prevention, surveillance and response capacity across all three countries by the end of March."

"Detecting and breaking every chain of transmission has been a monumental achievement," added Dr. Margaret Chan, WHO Director-General. "So much was needed and so much was accomplished by national authorities, heroic health workers, civil society, local and international organizations and generous partners. But our work is not done and vigilance is necessary to prevent new outbreaks."

'Workin' For Ebola'

According to figures from WHO, the latest Ebola outbreak – by far the worst in the history of the disease – has killed at least 11,315 people: 4,809 in Liberia, 3,955 in Sierra Leone, 2,536 in Guinea, and 8 in Nigeria. One person also died in the U.S., and six in Mali.That's the number of known or suspected Ebola deaths.

While Liberia was the last country to be officially cleared, it had been cleared twice before.

During the recent outbreak, Natural News dedicated no small amount of coverage to it, noting that the virus made it to the United States despite assurances by our government that it would never come to our shores, and that it could be spread via aerosol, as editor Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, reported.

Also, check out Mike's video, "Workin' For Ebola," here.

Sources:

BBC.com

NaturalNews.com

WHO.int