Months after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared Liberia virus free", a local boy has died of Ebola Tuesday, November 24.
The child, between 10-15 years old, was reported to have symptoms of Ebola a week prior his death. He was pronounced dead by Dr. Francis Kateh, chief medical officer and acting head of Liberia's Ebola Case Management System.
His father and brother were also infected and are now receiving needed treatment. Reports from Reuters say that over 150 people who came in to close contact with the family are now being monitored and quarantined by specialists.
Liberia was one of the three West African countries that were plagued worst by the epidemic virus in 2014. After one year of outbreak, it was later declared Ebola-free twice this year. The first was in May 2015, until a new case was reported shortly in July. Again, it was cleared for the second time in September and remained virus free until this incident.
Experts who study the virus closely have predicted that cases will continue to pop up in spite of the clearance from the WHO, considering the ones that were not reported hence unaccounted for. But, according to Dr. Amesh Adalja, an infectious-disease specialist and a senior associate at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center's Center for Health Security, the case in Liberia is "somewhat surprising." Liberia had gone several months without any new Ebola cases, Adalja said.
It takes 42 consecutive days after the last person infected with the virus is cured for the WHO to declare one place Ebola-free. The handling of this specific case puts many others at risk, Adalja said. It is still unknown how the teenager got the virus. Adalja is considering the possibility of sexual transmission, or a "spillover" from an animal-perhaps from a bat.
"I wouldn't be surprised if this chain of three becomes more," Adalja said, "There's going to be a reservoir of the virus in the population."
