Following the death of a teenage girl with Ebola in Sierra Leone, health officials quarantined 700 people as the country was close to eradicating the virus.
Sierra Leone plunges back into Ebola hell! Sierra Leonean health authorities announced on Tuesday that they had quarantined nearly 700 people in order to prevent an upsurge in the Ebola epidemic, after the death of a 16-year-old girl last Sunday.
“More than 680 inhabitants of the village of Robureh are now under quarantine for 21 days,” the spokesperson for the local Ebola response center, Amadu Thullah, told Agence France Presse (AFP).
No symptoms in relatives of the victim
The spokesperson for the National Center for the Fight against Ebola (NERC) in Sierra Leone, Hamidu Fornah, for his part told AFP that the relatives of the victim had all been placed under surveillance.
It thus counts the parents of the deceased girl, her relatives and her classmates. “They are classified as ‘presenting a high risk’ although they have shown no signs or symptoms of the disease,” said spokesman for the Ministry of Health, Seray Turay.
NERC also reported that the teenager died in the International Medical Corps center in Makeni (north of the country), where another patient successfully treated was able to return home at the end of August.
Two sources of contamination
Important clarification provided by the authorities, the last fatal case of Ebola has no connection with the source of contamination located in the neighboring province of Kambia, where a 67-year-old woman died at the end of August in the village of Sella Kafta, which has also been placed in quarantine.
The authorities conclude that there are therefore currently two outbreaks in two provinces, making a total of 1,524 people in quarantine. In this context, Mr Thullah admitted that morale was extremely low in the Makeni region, the largest city in the north of the country. “It’s a warning shot. This shows that Ebola is still present in the country, ”he laments.
Over 11,000 dead
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), more than 28,000 cases of Ebola (confirmed, probable and suspected) have been identified for nearly 2 years in West Africa. And more than 11,000 men, women and children have died, mostly in Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia.
The latter country was recently declared free from transmission of the virus. Since September 3, it has therefore entered a period of enhanced surveillance of 90 days. On the other hand, no prospect of an end to the crisis for Guinea, which has identified 3 new cases in the past 2 weeks.
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