Dead woman tests positive
for Ebola in Sierra Leone
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[August 31, 2015] FREETOWN
(Reuters) - The body of a woman who died in Sierra Leone has tested
positive for the Ebola virus, less than a week after the last person
confirmed to have had the disease was released from hospital, health
officials said.
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The new death, if confirmed, would represent a setback for efforts
to end an 18-month regional epidemic that has infected more than
28,000 people and killed more than a third of them.
In the latest case, a 67-year-old woman from the Kambia District
along Sierra Leone's border with Guinea, died on Saturday.
Sierra Leone's chief medical officer Brima Kargbo told Reuters that
two samples tested in Kambia had tested positive for Ebola. However,
he said further tests were being carried out in Makeni, the main
town in the Northern Province, and in the capital Freetown.
"We are particularly concerned because Kambia has gone 50 days
without a confirmed Ebola case, suggesting the possibility of an
error," Kargbo said.
He added that the woman worked as a trader, though people who knew
her said she had not traveled recently. She now becomes the first
new case in the country since Aug. 8.
Sierra Leone released what had been its last confirmed Ebola patient
from hospital on Monday and began a 42-day countdown to being
declared free of the virus.
During the course of the epidemic, the outbreak has ebbed only to
flare back again. Liberia was declared Ebola-free in May but a fresh
cluster of cases appeared nearly two months later.
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Liberia's last case was subsequently discharged on July 23.
Scientists say sexual transmission is the most likely explanation
for the resurgence in Liberia since the virus can live on in semen
beyond the usual 21-day incubation period.
(Reporting by Umaru Fofana; Editing by Joe Bavier/Ruth Pitchford)
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