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Ebola Crisis
Topic Started: 23 Mar 2014, 12:52 AM (2,798 Views)
skibboy
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22 March 2014

Guinea deaths: Ebola blamed for deadly fever outbreak

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Ebola was first identified in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1976

The Ebola virus has been identified as the cause of an outbreak of haemorrhagic fever now believed to have killed nearly 60 people in southern Guinea, government officials say.

Scores of cases have been recorded since the outbreak began early last month.

There is no known cure or vaccine for the highly contagious Ebola virus.

It is spread by close personal contact with people who are infected and kills between 25% and 90% of victims.

Symptoms include internal and external bleeding, diarrhoea and vomiting.

Outbreaks of Ebola occur primarily in remote villages in Central and West Africa, near tropical rainforests, the World Health Organization says.

Analysts suggest it has never been recorded in Guinea before.

Recent years have seen outbreaks in Uganda and Democratic Republic of Congo.

'Overwhelmed'

"We got the first results from Lyon yesterday (Friday) which informed us of the presence of the Ebola virus as the cause of this outbreak," Guinean health ministry official Sakoba Keita told AFP.

"The Ebola fever epidemic raging in southern Guinea since 9 February has left at least 59 dead out of 80 cases identified by our services on the ground."

"We are overwhelmed in the field, we are fighting against this epidemic with all the means we have at our disposal with the help of our partners but it is difficult."

Medical aid charity Medecins sans Frontieres said on Saturday it would strengthen its team in Guinea and fly some 33 tonnes of drugs and isolation equipment in from Belgium and France.

Dr Armand Sprecher, an emergency physician and epidemiologist working with MSF in Guinea, told the BBC that doctors had to identify all patients with the disease and monitor anyone they had been in contact with during their illness.

The latest outbreak could be brought under control if people acted quickly, he said.

"Based on our history with these sorts of outbreaks it will happen. Ideally, sooner rather than later," said Dr Sprecher.

"The more quickly we can contain this the fewer cases we'll have, then the smaller the scale of the epidemic. That's the idea of going in as strong as we can early on."

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skibboy
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02 April 2015

Last Cuban Ebola medics leave S.Leone, new clampdown for Easter

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© AFP/File | Health workers wearing personal protective equipment assist an Ebola patient at the Kenema treatment centre in Kenema, Sierra Leone on November 15, 2014

FREETOWN (AFP) - The last remaining Cuban medics sent to Sierra Leone in October last year to help in the fight against Ebola left the country on Wednesday, as the number of infections there is falling.

But President Ernest Bai Koroma announced new restrictions on movement for the upcoming Easter weekend to prevent a resurgence of the deadly virus.

The move comes after Sierra Leone's population of more than six million had been confined to their homes in a three-day nationwide lockdown that lasted from Friday to Monday.

The new measures "include a ban on meeting and on commercial activities from 6.00 pm on Saturday, April 4 and all day on Sunday, April 5," the president said.

The 66 remaining Cuban medics who answered a call from the World Health Organization to come to Sierra Leone as Ebola raged six months ago left on Wednesday, saying they believed the country was well on the way to defeating the virus.

The head of the Cuban delegation, Doctor Jorge Delgado Butillo, told AFP by telephone his staff had "helped to save the life of a great number of people infected with Ebola".

"We are delighted that Sierra Leone is showing signs of victory," he said.

A total of 256 Cuban medics had been mobilised in the three countries worst hit by Ebola - Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea.

Sierra Leone's National Ebola Response Centre (NERC) said during the three-day nationwide clampdown, 263 sick people were evacuated from their homes of which 10 were confirmed to have tested positive for the virus.

The latest World Health Organization (WHO) figures published on Wednesday showed that the number of new Ebola infections in Sierra Leone fell for the fourth consecutive week.

The 25 new cases of infections in the week of March 23-29 was the lowest since May 2014.

However, Guinea saw a rise in cases of infection from 45 in the preceding week to 57 in the week of March 23-29.

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06 April 2015

Baby dies of Ebola in SLeone area where outbreak started

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© AFP/File | People walking past a billboard reading "Stop Ebola" in Freetown, Sierra Leone, November 7, 2014

FREETOWN (AFP) - A baby has died of Ebola in a part of Sierra Leone where the outbreak began, dealing a blow to the recovery weeks after the district had eradicated the virus, officials said Monday.

The eastern district of Kailahun has been at the forefront of the country's recovery from the epidemic, having seen no new cases for more than three months and been declared "Ebola-free".

But health ministry officials confirmed a new case of the deadly tropical fever in a nine-month-old boy who tested positive after his death.

The infant had been treated at the Nixon hospital in Kailahun for diarrhoea and returned home, but he died after his health declined and he was readmitted for a blood transfusion, the officials said.

His parents and other family members in the Njaluahun tribal chiefdom have been placed in quarantine, the ministry said.

Health officials are monitoring an uncle who provided blood for the infant and investigating whether the sample he donated was the one used in the transfusion.

"The death has puzzled the chiefdom as the parents of the deceased have not been diagnosed as Ebola positive," Foday Sajuma, the manager of a local community radio station, told AFP.

Administrative areas such as counties and districts are declared "Ebola-free" by local authorities and the World Health Organization (WHO) once they have gone 42 days -- twice the maximum incubation period of the virus -- with no new cases.

"The area is in a sombre mood and a state of worry as residents are now resigned to begin a new Ebola countdown after recording a total of 111 days of zero Ebola," Sajuma told AFP.

The government's National Ebola Response Centre and the WHO have sent rapid response teams to Kailahun to trace anyone who may have had contact with the baby in a bid to contain the outbreak.

One of the deadliest viruses known to man, Ebola is spread through direct contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person showing symptoms such as fever or vomiting.

The epidemic has killed more than 10,000 people since it emerged in the forests of southern Guinea in December 2013 and spread to Liberia and then Sierra Leone.

Sierra Leone reported its first case in Kailahun, which borders Guinea, in May last year and the epidemic quickly spread throughout the country, with around 12,000 cases so far leading to more than 3,800 deaths.

The re-emergence of the virus at the epicentre of the outbreak comes with Sierra Leone seeing encouraging signs of a recovery, although the western area surrounding Freetown and parts of the north remain a worry.

Medical aid agency Doctors without Borders closed its Ebola clinic in Kailahun in February.

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09 April 2015

US clinician cured of Ebola, leaves hospital

WASHINGTON (AFP) - An American clinician has been cured of Ebola and was discharged from a hospital near the US capital, officials said Thursday.

The man, whose identity has not been revealed, was sickened with the often deadly virus while working in Sierra Leone, and was flown to the United States for treatment last month.

"We're heartened by the news that our colleague is heading home, free of Ebola, and making his way toward a full recovery," said Sheila Davis, chief of Ebola response for Partners In Health, the medical charity that employed him in west Africa, which is facing the deadliest outbreak of Ebola in history.

"His commitment to strengthening the quality of health care in some of the world's poorest communities is something we should all be proud of."

The man was admitted to the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center in Bethesda, Maryland on March 13.

"The individual is no longer contagious to the community," the NIH said in a statement, noting that he had been released earlier Thursday.

"At the request of the patient, no further information is being provided."

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10 April 2015

'Progress' in Ebola fight, but 'substantial risks' remain: WHO

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© AFP | Sierra Leone health officials check passengers transiting at the border crossing with Liberia in Jendema on March 28, 2015

GENEVA (AFP) - Real progress is being made in the fight against Ebola, but the deadly outbreak in west Africa remains a major international health emergency, the World Health Organization said Friday.

The UN health agency said after its fifth emergency meeting on the haemorrhagic fever that the situation in the worst-hit countries of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone remained a "public health emergency of international concern".

But the experts, who met Thursday, had said they "believed the risk of international spread appeared to be reducing," Bruce Aylward, who heads WHO's Ebola response, told reporters in Geneva.

This is due to international vigilance, strict exit screening from the affected countries and especially the major efforts in those countries to rein in the spread of the virus.

The experts however took issue with "inappropriate" measures put in place by some countries, including quarantining aid workers, closing borders and cancelling flights.

Such measures not only interfere with international travel and impact local economies, but also hamper Ebola response and recovery efforts because they make it more difficult for aid workers to move in and out of the affected countries, Aylward said.

The west African countries ravaged by the virus, which has claimed nearly 10,600 lives in the past 15 months, have meanwhile made significant strides in cutting transmission, he said.

Last week, Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia registered only 30 new confirmed cases, down from 82 a week earlier and 150 three weeks ago.

While Liberia, long the hardest-hit country, has registered no new cases for several weeks, Sierra Leone last week saw nine and Guinea, where the outbreak started in December 2013, counted 21.

At the height of the outbreak last September and October, Libera was registering more than 300 new cases each week.

Aylward said the significant decline in transmission "reflects real progress."

While new cases are still popping up along their coasts, the three countries appeared to be "on track" to meet their target to halt transmission completely in the interior before the rainy season begins next month, flooding roads and making it all the more difficult to bring in assistance.

But "the risks are still substantial", Aylward warned, pointing out that the deadly outbreak "began with one case", meaning a single case could potentially spark a resurgence of the disease.

While the affected countries have made great progress in improving contact tracing and in engaging with communities, dangerous behaviours like unsafe burials of contagious bodies or caring for the sick at home are still going on, he said.

Only about 50 percent of new cases in Sierra Leone last week, and less in Guinea came from lists of known contacts, which "means you don't have complete control," Aylward added.

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Nicaragua quarantines US embassy man over Ebola and requests removal

42 minutes ago

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The latest outbreak of the Ebola virus has killed more than 10,000 people in West Africa

The health ministry in Nicaragua says it has quarantined a member of staff at the US embassy in Managua amid concerns over contact with Ebola.

Nicaragua has asked the US to send a plane to remove him.

The embassy acknowledged the man had travelled to Liberia but he had not come into contact with Ebola patients.

It said he had no sign of haemorrhagic fever and that both the US and Nicaragua's health ministry had cleared him to return.

The embassy said the 51-year-old man had been examined at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention in the US before returning to Nicaragua.

However, the Nicaraguan government has asked the US state department to send a plane "with all the equipment necessary" to take him back to the US.

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The health ministry has isolated him at his home, setting up a security corridor around it.

"The man confirmed that he had spent time in health facilities where Ebola patients are being treated," said the head of epidemiology at the health ministry, Carlos Saenz.

"The man does not show any symptoms of the disease and the measures are strictly preventive," he said.

A number of Latin American countries have banned travellers from Ebola-stricken countries in West Africa.

The Ebola outbreak in West Africa that erupted last year has killed more than 10,000 people, almost all of them in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone.

But the World Health Organisation says the number of new cases has fallen and the risk of the disease spreading appears to be receding.

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14 April 2015

Ebola vaccine trial begins in Sierra Leone

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© AFP/File | Sierra Leone health officials check passengers transiting at the border crossing with Liberia in Jendema, Sierra Leone on March 28, 2015

MIAMI (AFP) - Thousands of healthcare workers in areas of Sierra Leone that are grappling with Ebola will now begin receiving an experimental vaccine against the often deadly virus, officials said Tuesday.

The vaccine candidate, rVSV-ZEBOV, was developed by the Public Health Agency of Canada and licensed to NewLink Genetics and Merck pharmaceuticals.

It will be given to 6,000 healthcare workers and other frontline personnel in the fight against Ebola over the coming months, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in a statement.

The vaccine trial, known as STRIVE (Sierra Leone Trial to Introduce a Vaccine against Ebola), is being conducted in Freetown, the Western Area Rural district and certain chiefdoms in Bombali, Port Loko, and Tonkolili districts.

"These study locations were selected because they have been heavily affected by the Ebola outbreak in the past few months," the CDC said.

As of late March, the vaccine has already been studied in more than 800 people as part of ongoing vaccine trials in Africa, Canada, Europe, and the United States.

So far, the vaccine appears safe and those who take it show an immune response to Ebola.

"The vaccine cannot cause Ebola virus disease but can potentially stimulate an immune response to protect against the disease," the CDC said.

However, it remains unclear if the vaccine can prevent Ebola, and if it does, how much protection it may provide.

Therefore those who take it must still follow all precautionary measures to avoid Ebola infection, such as covering their skin, mouth, nose and eyes and not coming in direct contact with the bodily fluids of those who are ill.

Those in the trial have two choices -? either they can get the vaccine right away or they can get it six months later. Researchers will follow the subjects in the trial for six months to compare rates of Ebola infection.

"We don't know whether this vaccine will be the Ebola prevention tool we're all eager for, but we hope that what we learn from STRIVE will help us save lives during this and future Ebola outbreaks," said Anne Schuchat, director of CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.

The deadliest outbreak of Ebola in history began in late 2013 and has killed more than 10,000 people, mainly in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.

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15 April 2015

Obama pledges US aid in wiping out last traces of Ebola

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© AFP | US President Barack Obama speaks with Sierra Leone President Ernest Bai Koroma (L), Liberia President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Guinea President Alpha Conde, during meeting about international response to Ebola crisis, in Washington, DC, April 15, 2015

WASHINGTON (AFP) - President Barack Obama met on Wednesday with the leaders of three Ebola-stricken West African nations, vowing US help in wiping out the last vestiges of the often deadly disease.

"We begin by noting the incredible losses that took place in all three countries," Obama said during his meeting with Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Guinean President Alpha Conde, and Sierra Leonean President Ernest Bai Koroma.

"On behalf of the American people, we want to express our deepest condolences to the families and recognize how challenging this has been for all the countries involved."

Obama hailed the "great courage and resolve" of the three nations where the current Ebola outbreak has claimed more than 10,000 lives, and promised continued US support to help prevent future outbreaks, even as the numbers of infected people subsides.

The United States "has been proud to lead international efforts to work with these three countries" to combat the illness, Obama said.

"Now we're focused on a shared goal, and that is getting to zero. We can't be complacent. This virus is unpredictable."

Health officials said there were fewer than 40 new cases of Ebola diagnosed in West Africa last week, the lowest number in the past year.

Obama said in addition to the lives lost, Ebola has exacted a tremendous toll on the economies of the three West African countries.

"Ebola epidemic has been also an economic crisis," the US president said.

He said the three leaders had meetings planned with a number of the multilateral institutions, including the IMF and World Bank, as they seek financial assistance to aid their recovery.

Washington will "stand shoulder to shoulder with them, to work hard to take this crisis and turn it into an opportunity to rebuild even stronger than before," Obama said.

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23 April 2015

Ebola test drug saved monkey lives: trial results

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© AFP/File | A Liberian worker reacts as he dismantles shelters in an Ebola treatment center closed by the charity Medecins Sans Frontiers in Monrovia on March 25, 2015

PARIS (AFP) - An experimental drug saved the lives of monkeys infected with the Ebola virus strain responsible for the current west African outbreak, according to test results published Wednesday.

It was the first trial in primates with a treatment specifically targeting the Makona strain of the haemorrhagic virus that kills both humans and monkeys, its developers said.

The results, which are being reported for the first time, have already been used as preclinical validation for tests in patients, which started in Sierra Leone this year.

The first results from those human trials with the drug, TKM-Ebola-Guinea, are expected in the second half of 2015, study author Thomas Geisbert of the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, told AFP.

For the animal testing, Geisbert and a team infected six rhesus monkeys with the Makona strain of the Zaire species of the Ebola virus that has killed over 10,700 out of some 25,800 people infected in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone since late 2013.

The specialists then treated three of the monkeys with their specially-adapted, strain-specific version of TKM-Ebola -- an experimental treatment that has been given to Western health care workers who contracted the disease in Africa, but whose efficacy in humans has not yet been proven.

The monkeys treated with TKM-Ebola-Guinea were still healthy when the trial ended after 28 days, said the team.

The three not given the drug died within eight or nine days of infection.

"This is the first study to show post-exposure protection... against the new Makona outbreak strain of Ebola-Zaire virus," Geisbert said.

There is no approved treatment or vaccine for Ebola, and most drugs being developed are based on previously-detected strains of the virus which has caused several outbreaks since 1976.

The UN's World Health Organization gave the green light last August for experimental drugs to be used in the current outbreak, the deadliest in history by far.

Several drug candidates are being fast-tracked through the normally years-long trial process, and while many have shown promise, it was not known if they would work against the Makona strain specifically.

The new drug gets its name from Ebola-Guinea, the initial title given to the Makona strain.

The drug, said its makers, can be adapted to different strains, and can be produced in eight weeks.

TKM-Ebola works by blocking certain genes of the virus, thereby halting its replication.

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25 April 2015

Dutchman tapped to head UN Ebola mission

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© AFP/File | A girl walks past a slogan painted on a wall in Monrovia on August 31, 2014

UNITED NATIONS (UNITED STATES) (AFP) - The United Nations announced Saturday it has nominated Peter Jan Graaff of the Netherlands as the world body's new chief of mission to fight Ebola.

Graaff is replacing Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed at UNMEER, after the Mauritanian diplomat was appointed to special UN envoy for Yemen.

Graaff will work closely with Special Envoy on Ebola David Nabarro, along with governments in the region.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon "expresses his sincere gratitude to Mr Ould Cheikh Ahmed for his exceptional work and leadership of UNMEER, and for his commitment to ensuring the affected countries are on the road to recovery from the unprecedented Ebola outbreak," a statement read.

Graaff, 55, has served since October 2014 as Ebola crisis manager for Liberia, one of the countries most affected by the epidemic, along with Guinea and Sierra Leone.

The World Health Organization says more than 26,000 people have been infected with Ebola since the outbreak began late 2013, and more than 10,800 have died.

More than 99 percent of the cases were reported in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone.

Graaff previously worked for the WHO in several African countries, Afghanistan and Haiti, and led the Civil Affairs and Development team for the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, or UNAMA.

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28 April 2015

WHO draws up plan to eradicate Ebola

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© AFP/File | A man walks past an Ebola campaign banner with the new slogan "Ebola Must GO" in Monrovia, Liberia on February 23, 2015

GENEVA (AFP) - The World Health Organization on Tuesday unveiled a plan to eradicate the deadly Ebola virus, aiming to identify and isolate the dwindling number of new cases by the end of May.

In its new plan, the UN health agency stressed the importance of maintaining the massive efforts to rid the worst-affected nations -- Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone -- of the viral disease, cases of which have already fallen sharply.

"There is still a considerable effort required to stop all chains of transmission in the affected countries, prevent the spread of the disease to neighbouring countries and to safely re-activate life-saving essential health services," WHO said.

According to the latest numbers, around 26,300 people have so far been infected with the virus, and nearly 10,900 of them have died.

The WHO's 28-page Strategic Response Plan announced Tuesday is a follow-up on the roadmap it launched last August as the Ebola virus began spreading exponentially.

At the time, just over 3,000 cases and 1,500 deaths had been tallied, but the UN agency warned the caseload could top 20,000.

While those fears have been surpassed, WHO said Tuesday that the unprecedented global push to rein in the virus had proved successful.

In recent months only a few dozen new confirmed cases have been registered each week, compared to the peaks of over 800 cases per week in October.

Liberia, once the hardest-hit country, has reported no new cases of Ebola since the end of March, and appears to be on track to be declared Ebola free in early May

But the WHO has warned that the fight will not be over until the deadly virus has been completely eradicated.

It said case numbers had "plateaued... due to persistently high transmission in the western areas of both Guinea and Sierra Leone."

Limiting the spread of the virus in the coastal areas of the two countries before the rainy season's imminent onset was crucial, it said.

Among the concerns still plaguing the two countries are continued "Ebola deaths in the community and numerous instances of unsafe burials" of the highly contagious bodies, WHO said.

A number of new cases are also popping up among people not known to have been in contact with previous cases, or who cannot be linked to known chains of transmission, it warned.

"The priority is to identify and isolate all new cases by the end of May, and to confirm that they have come from known transmission chains and contact lists," the WHO plan said.

Maintaining capacity at a district, national and regional level, and continued vigilance globally was also important, it said.

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05 May 2015

Ebola end in sight as weekly infections drop to single figures

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© AFP | UN Ebola coordinator David Nabarro holds a press conference in Dakar on May 5, 2015

DAKAR (AFP) - The two African countries still battling Ebola have both recorded weekly infections in single figures for the first time since the peak of the epidemic, the United Nations said on Tuesday.

Guinea and Sierra Leone each reported nine new cases in the seven days up to Sunday, in sharp contrast to six months ago, when the government in Freetown was registering upwards of 500 weekly infections and its neighbour was also going into triple figures.

UN Ebola envoy David Nabarro said it was the first time since June last year that the total weekly infections across both countries had dipped below 20.

"Guinea has never been massively high but this is extraordinary progress," Nabarro told reporters in Senegalese capital Dakar.

"For those of us involved in this we've got used to having good news one week and bad news the next week, so we're not starting to celebrate yet, but we are feeling positive."

Nabarro said the proportion of new cases infected via previously unrecognised chains of transmission and the proportion of people dying of Ebola in their communities, having not sought treatment, were both falling.

"Taken together, this makes us believe that we are moving towards the end. We just don't know exactly when it will come."

Around 11,000 people have died of the disease since the west African epidemic emerged in southern Guinea in December 2013, with more than 26,000 people infected, according to the World Health Organization.

The two countries, plus neighbouring Liberia, are forecast to lose 12 percent of their combined gross domestic product this year, according to World Bank estimates.

Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone were ravaged by an epidemic that has killed around 11,000 people since December 2013, more than 500 of them healthcare workers.

In addition, their health sectors have been partially wiped out by the epidemic or forced to divert resources to fighting Ebola at the expense of other diseases like measles, malaria and AIDS.

Nabarro said Liberia took around two months to move from single figures in its weekly count of new cases to zero.

The country will be declared "Ebola-free" on Saturday if no new infections are reported this week, having gone 42 days with no cases since the last victim was buried in March.

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07 May 2015

Ebola deaths pass 11,000 mark: WHO

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© AFP/File | Workers wearing protective suits are pictured at the Donka Ebola treatment center on May 2, 2015 in Conakry

GENEVA (AFP) - The number of deaths from the Ebola epidemic now exceeds 11,000, figures from the World Health Organization showed on Wednesday.

In the three countries worst affected -- Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea -- 26,593 people were infected, and 11,005 had died, the WHO said.

The worst ever outbreak of Ebola began in southern Guinea in December 2013 before spreading to Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Liberia has recorded the most deaths with 4,716, while 3,903 have died in Sierra Leone and 2,386 have died in Guinea.

Although the number of cases has topped 11,000, the WHO is due to declare on May 9 that the epidemic is over in Liberia, unless there are any new cases in the country before then.

The number of new infections are also dwindling in Guinea and Sierra Leone.

Only nine new cases were recorded in each country last week, the lowest figures for almost a year.

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Ebola 'lives on in eye of US survivor'

By Smitha Mundasad
Health reporter, BBC News
4 hours ago

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The Ebola virus has been detected in the eye of a US doctor who had already recovered from the illness.

The medic, who caught the bug while working in Sierra Leone, had blurred eyesight and pain two months after being declared Ebola-free.

Scientists say his eye infection presents no risk to the public.

But reporting in the New England Journal of Medicine they warn that research is needed to see if Ebola can also linger in other parts of the body.

Inflammatory reaction

Patients with Ebola are generally discharged once tests show the virus is no longer present in blood.

At this point, experts say, it cannot be spread to members of the general public.

But there have been suggestions the virus may live on in some bodily fluids as certain parts of the body could act as reservoirs.

Now a team, including scientists from Emory University School of Medicine, say Ebola can persist in the eye and lead to further damage.

Their 43-year-old patient recovered from a serious Ebola infection that needed weeks of intensive care.

But shortly after being discharged, he had a burning sensation in his eyes and suffered worsening blurry vision.

Tests showed the fluid in his left eye had live Ebola virus.

And doctors say there was widespread inflammation which can lead to blindness.

But after three months of treatment with steroids and antiviral drugs, his vision began to improve.

Experts think the virus's staying power might be due to the eye's ability to tolerate certain pathogens once inside its walls.

They suggest further studies are warranted to check for the the presence of the virus in other "immune privileged" sites such as the central nervous system, testicles and cartilage.

And doctors are calling for more help for survivors in the worst-affected countries.

Recovering patients are reporting eye problems among other difficulties.

But eye specialists are in short supply in Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia.

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Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia have been hardest hit by the virus

Dr Russell Van Gelder, of the American Academy of Ophthalmology, said: "This remarkable case now demonstrates that the virus can remain viable in ocular fluids long after the patient has recovered from the systemic infection.

"If the Ebola epidemic continues, ophthalmologists throughout the world will be seeing patients with post-Ebola uveitis (inflammation), and will need to recognise and treat this condition.

"However, I want to emphasise that as far as we know, the Ebola virus is not transmitted by casual contact.

"The current study does not suggest that infection can be transmitted through contact with tears of patients who have recovered from their initial infection."

Safe sex

Separately, the World Health Organization (WHO) has strengthened its safe sex advice for survivors.

A recent case suggested Ebola fragments could remain in the semen of male survivors some months after recovery.

This, alongside evidence gathered from similar viruses, led WHO experts to warn there is a "strong possibility" Ebola could be passed on from male survivors to females during sexual contact.

This has not yet been proven.

But the organisation now advises all recovered patients and their partners to abstain from or practise safe sex until male survivors have had two negative semen tests.

WHO scientists add it is not clear whether female survivors can transmit the virus through sexual contact.

But they caution it remains "theoretically possible".

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Liberia declared Ebola-free after weeks of no cases

9 May 2015

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Liberia is now officially Ebola-free, but health authorities are urging vigilance

The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared Liberia free of the Ebola virus, confirming that the country has had no new cases in 42 days.

President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf told the BBC that Liberia had "crossed the Rubicon" and would be celebrating a concerted effort to stem the disease.

More than 4,700 deaths from Ebola have been recorded in Liberia, more than in any other affected country.

Neighbouring Guinea and Sierra Leone continue to fight the outbreak.

It has claimed over 11,000 lives across the region since last year.

The WHO regards a country Ebola-free after a 42-day period without a new case - twice the maximum incubation period.

The last confirmed death in Liberia was on 27 March. On Saturday the World Health Organization said in a statement: "The outbreak of Ebola virus disease in Liberia is over."

President Sirleaf told the BBC: "We will celebrate our communities which have taken responsibility and participated in fighting this unknown enemy and finally we've crossed the Rubicon. Liberia indeed is a happy nation."

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A poster in Paynesville, outside the capital Monrovia - part of the Liberian campaign against Ebola

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Chlorinated water has been placed outside public buildings

Traumatised nation

Officials Ebola was eventually conquered in Liberia through a collective.

Care centres and hand washing stations were set up to try to halt the disease, which spreads through contact with sick people.

Billboards went up with slogans such as "Ebola is real", "wash your hands and don't touch" and "don't be the next victim".

"It has been a terrible time in the history of our country," Monrovia resident Emmanuel Tokao wrote on a BBC Facebook page. "I'm firstly grateful to God, who I believe brought us back to normality."

At the height of the outbreak, he said, "ambulances would either come for a dead body or sick person. It reminded me of the war days".

Liberia lost around 250,000 lives in a civil war ending in 2005.

The BBC's Jonathan Paye-Layleh in Monrovia says the president gave a sense of how traumatised the outbreak remains after the outbreak.

In an address to the nation on Saturday, she said: "Even today if you hear an ambulance siren you shake a little bit."

Although Liberia has now been declared Ebola-free, correspondents say the outbreak will have a long-term impact on Liberia's fragile economy.

The current outbreak is the deadliest in history.

It initially centred on Guinea's remote south-eastern region of Nzerekore in early 2014, and later spread to Liberia and Sierra Leone.

The WHO is warning against complacency.

Its statement warns that there is "a high risk that infected people may cross into Liberia over the region's exceptionally porous borders".

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11 May 2015

Liberia celebrates end of Ebola

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© AFP/File | Liberia's President Ellen Sirleaf Johnson (R) shakes hands with Jerry Brown, a medical director and surgeon who helped lead the fight aganst Ebola, on May 9, 2015 in Monrovia

MONROVIA (AFP) - Thousands of Liberians gathered Monday to celebrate the end of Ebola after the country was officially given the all-clear from an epidemic that has killed more than 4,700 people.

The government declared a public holiday to allow pupils and workers take part in a festival in the capital Monrovia featuring traditional dance and contemporary music.

Students sang joyfully and waved placards with slogans including "bye bye Ebola", "we are the winner" and "we will always overcome".

The ceremony began on a sombre note however with testimonials from health workers and other staff in the country's Ebola treatment units (ETUs), as well as survivors and body disposal team members.

"When I contracted the Ebola virus I was carried to the ETU, where all those who were in the centre with me died. Only I survived," said Tee Love Lorseh.

"While I was there my father and my mother died from the disease."

The WHO said in a statement on Saturday that 42 days had passed since the last person confirmed with the virus in Liberia 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 crisis.

The agency warned however that because Ebola outbreaks were continuing in neighbouring Guinea and Sierra Leone, the risk remained high that infected people could re-enter the country.

Dignitaries at Monday's ceremony included Togolese President Faure Gnassingbe, who congratulated the Liberian people for their "wonderful job".

"Ebola is an ally of silence and slow reaction. This should be a lesson for us in Africa. Quick reaction is needed in fighting a virus," he said.

Liberian lawmaker Saah Joseph, recognised as a key figure in the country's Ebola response and nicknamed "The Hero" in local media, recalled the dark days of the epidemic.

"One day we carried more than 300 bodies to Redemption Hospital. We had to remove some to the Island Clinic. When we got there, we had more bodies. It was difficult for me, frustrating, but we had to do the job," he said.

The WHO's "Ebola-free" declaration was officially handed by the agency's country representative Alex Gasasira to Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who thanked citizens for eradicating the virus.

"My special thanks go to the security apparatus. They were heroes," she said.

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Goodbye Ebola: Liberia holds party after 'beating' the disease

15 hours ago

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Liberia's held an official celebration of the country being declared free of Ebola.

The government and the World Health Organisation made the announcement on Saturday after 42 days without a new case.

During Liberia's year-long epidemic 4,700 people died - more than any other country.

A public holiday was declared so pupils and workers could celebrate the virus being brought under control on Monday.

The outbreak still isn't over in neighbouring Guinea and Sierra Leone.

Liberians took to the streets with signs and posters with messages like "We will always overcome" and "We are the winner".

Others danced, played drums and waved flags in celebration.

Women carry signs saying thanking God the country is free of the virus.

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The Ebola outbreak in West Africa was first reported in March 2014 and quickly became the deadliest outbreak since the disease was discovered in 1976.

It's thought 26,720 cases have been reported and 11,079 people have died from it in Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Mali and the US.

The latest outbreak has killed five times more people than all the other known outbreaks put together.

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Ebola cases 11 May 2015

The disease causes fever, diarrhoea, rashes, bleeding and vomiting.

A year ago, aid workers described the outbreak as out of control.

In December, the World Health Organisation found dozens of bodies in a remote part of Sierra Leone, raising fears that the full scale of the Ebola outbreak may have been underreported.

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12 May 2015

Nurse becomes Italy's second Ebola case

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© AFP/File | People stand at the main entrance of the Lazzaro Spallanzani Institute, where first Italian Ebola patient was treated in Rome on November 25, 2014

ROME (AFP) - An Italian nurse who had recently been working in Sierra Leone with medical charity Emergency tested positive for Ebola on Tuesday in the country's second case of the virus.

The health ministry said in a statement that the male nurse was in an infectious diseases ward of a hospital at Sassari on the island of Sardinia, awaiting transfer by a specially-equipped airforce plane to a Rome clinic that cured Italy's first Ebola victim, a doctor who had also worked for Emergency in Sierra Leone.

The nurse began displaying possible symptoms of the virus on Sunday evening, two days after arriving home from Africa, the ministry said.

Tests confirmed he had contracted the disease that has killed more than 4,700 people in its latest outbreak in West Africa.

The doctor who was successfully treated at the Lazzaro Spallanzani clinic in Rome was evacuated from Sierra Leone in mid-November.

The 50-year-old left hospital in January following treatment with a combination of experimental drugs and the blood plasma of an Ebola survivor.

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06 June 2015

Guinea extends Ebola emergency measures

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© AFP/File | Workers walk at the Donka Ebola treatment center on May 2, 2015 in Conakry

CONAKRY (AFP) - Ebola-hit Guinea has extended a health emergency declared in March until the end of June, citing the persistence of the deadly virus in the country, the presidency said on Saturday.

The decision was taken on Friday by President Alpha Conde, the statement said, after he met his counterpart from Sierra Leone, Ernest Bai Koroma.

Impoverished Guinea and its neighbours Sierra Leone and Liberia have registered more than 11,000 deaths since the epidemic flared up in December 2013.

Liberia was declared Ebola-free in May, but the virus continues to thrive in Sierra Leone and Guinea.

In August last year, Conde declared a health emergency for the whole of Guinea.

Then on March 28, 2015, he decreed a "reinforced health emergency" for five provinces in the west and southwest of the West African country.

"Given the persistence of the epidemic... in parts of Guinea and Sierra Leone," Conde and Koroma decided "to extend the reinforced emergency measures in their countries until June 30, 2015", the Guinean presidency said.

No comment was available from the authorities in Sierra Leone on Saturday evening.

According to the statement, the regions of Guinea concerned were Forecariah, Coyah, Dubreka, Boke, Kindia, Boffa, Fria and Conakry city -- three more than in the March decision.

The emergency measures included the temporary closure of hospitals and clinics where there have been cases of Ebola.

Anyone hiding the sick or moving bodies would be prosecuted for "endangering other people's lives".

The decision also criminalised "all those who threaten or attack" health workers or their workplaces and equipment.

Guinea is the original epicentre but the least-affected country in the current Ebola outbreak, the worst in history since the virus was first identified in 1976.

It is also in Guinea where the reaction to the fight against Ebola has been the most violent, with eight members of an outreach team killed last September by protesters who denied the existence of the virus as a "white conspiracy".

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09 June 2015

Last year's Ebola strain weaker than that of 1976: study

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© AFP/File | Health workers from Sierra Leone's Red Cross Society Burial Team 7 preparing to carry a corpse out of a house in Freetown on November 12, 2014

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The Ebola strain that ravaged West Africa last year is less virulent than the first one that appeared in 1976, researchers reported Tuesday.

The results of the test on monkeys by scientists at the National Institutes of Health are considered important because they suggest the virus that caused at least 11,000 deaths is not becoming more severe.

"In fact, the new study suggests the current virus has a decreased ability to cause disease in their animal model compared to the 1976 strain," the study said.

That one is known as the Mayinga strain, while the one that hit Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone last year is called the Makona strain.

In 1976, the Ebola outbreak was limited, killing 318 people in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the former Zaire.

The deadliest case with this strain came in Uganda in 2000 with the death of 425 people.

These outbreaks had a weaker impact because they happened in rural, sparsely populated areas.

In the NIH experiment, two groups of monkeys were infected with one or the other of the Ebola strains.

In three days both were spreading the virus, and the ones with the Mayinga strain developed a rash on day four and became extremely ill on days five and six.

But the monkeys with the other strain did not get rashes before the sixth day, and severe symptoms did not appear until day seven.

Furthermore, liver damage, which is a typical result of Ebola infection, appeared in the Makona-strain-infected monkey two days later than the ones with the Mayinga strain.

And the immune systems of the animals with the weaker Makona strain produced around three times as much virus-fighting protein as those with the Mayinga strain did.

The virologists who conducted the study plan to do more research on how immune systems react to both strains of Ebola.

But they believe that at least seven days are needed after infection to mount an effective response.

This response does not seem to happen in monkeys infected with the Mayinga strain because the disease progresses too quickly.

Several phase 3 trials are underway in Africa with two vaccines against the Makona strain. They have shown promising results in terms of protection.

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10 June 2015

Ebola spikes again in Guinea, Sierra Leone: WHO

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© AFP/File | Workers wearing protective suits are pictured at the Donka Ebola treatment center on May 2, 2015 in Conakry

GENEVA (AFP) - The number of Ebola cases has risen in Guinea and Sierra Leone for the second consecutive week, the World Health Organization said Wednesday.

In Guinea, 16 new cases were found in the week ending June 7, with 15 more found in neighbouring Sierra Leone.

In the previous week, 13 new cases had been found in Guinea, a clear increase on the nine reported a week before that.

The pattern was similar in Sierra Leone, where 12 new cases were found in the last week of May compared to only three the previous week.

"This is the second consecutive weekly increase in case incidence," the WHO said.

Ebola has killed 11,158 of the 27,237 people infected, the WHO said in its latest situation report.

The number of health workers affected in Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia has risen to 869, of whom 507 have died, since the current epidemic broke out in west Africa in December 2013.

Liberia was declared Ebola-free in May, but hopes that Sierra Leone and Guinea would quickly follow suit have been dashed in recent weeks.

The global health agency also voiced concern that the areas affected in Guinea have increased.

In the week leading up to June 7, two new cases were confirmed in Guinea's capital Conakry, which had been Ebola-free during the three previous weeks.

The virus also reappeared in the western Guinean region of Kindia, with three new cases identified there.

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8 June 2015

Thousands of Liberians in 'post-Ebola syndrome' study

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© AFP/File / by Zoom Dosso | A girl walks past a slogan painted on a wall reading "Stop Ebola" in Monrovia on August 31, 2014

MONROVIA (AFP) - Liberia launched a five-year study on Wednesday to unravel the mystery of the long-term health effects that plague Ebola survivors and assess how long they should go without sex.

The Partnership for Research on Ebola Vaccines in Liberia, a collaboration with the United States more commonly known by the acronym PREVAIL, is expected to enrol 1,500 survivors and 6,000 of their partners and family across the west African country.

"The clinical course of Ebola virus disease is reasonably well-understood, but we still have much to learn about the long-term health effects of the illness in those who recover," Anthony Fauci, of the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) said in a statement.

The epidemic killed more than 4,800 Liberians after spreading from Guinea in March last year but the country was given the all-clear on May 9 -- 42 days after the last case was buried.

There has been little research on survivors, but the World Health Organization (WHO) has acknowledged that many are experiencing crippling complications long after walking out of Ebola treatment units (ETUs).

Matshidiso Moeti, the WHO's head in Africa, told AFP in April Liberian survivors had been reporting a range of problems, including sight and hearing impairment, as part of a mystery condition referred to as "post-Ebola syndrome".

Investigators from the NIH's National Eye Institute (NEI), the John F Kennedy hospital in Monrovia and the Liberian government will collaborate on the research.

- 'Many health complaints' -

"We have realised that many survivors have come from the ETU complaining about health complications, but these complaints have not been documented and that seems like we are not concerned," Kasola Fallah, the study's chief researcher, told AFP in Monrovia.

The WHO announced in April that traces of Ebola had been found in the semen of a man six months after his recovery, recommending that survivors use condoms beyond the three-month period previously prescribed.

"It became apparent that lots of things about Ebola survivors have not been studied... That started to raise lots of questions about the disease," Fallah said.

All participants will undergo a medical history and physical and vision examination and have blood collected, while some will be asked to provide samples of sweat, tears, semen or cervical secretions.

Enrolment began with six survivors at the JFK on Wednesday, with sites across the country due to be added in the future.

"I am a survivor. Since I left the ETU I have been experiencing lots of health complaints," Luke Tarplah told AFP.

"Right now my head is strongly hurting. Sometimes it is my entire body. I am happy to be part of this study to know what are the reasons."

Participants will be asked to volunteer the names of up to five close contacts -- family or sexual partners -- who will also undergo examinations and blood tests before completing questionnaires detailing their contact with the survivor.

The research team will follow the Ebola survivors and their close contacts for up to five years, examining them and tracking health issues every six months.

In February, PREVAIL launched a clinical trial in Liberia on two experimental Ebola vaccines involving 1,500 participants which is ongoing.

The partnership is also working on trials on treatments in Liberia, Sierra Leone and the United States.

by Zoom Dosso

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Ebola outbreak: New cases in Freetown, Sierra Leone

5 hours ago

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The latest Ebola cases were recorded in a densely populated slum, adding to fears it will spread

Two new cases of Ebola have been recorded in the Sierra Leone capital Freetown, weeks after the city was thought to be free of the disease.

Health officials say there are fears of further infections as the cases occurred in a densely populated slum.

Sierra Leone's National Ebola Response Centre said there was great concern because all Ebola quarantine facilities in Freetown had been closed.

West Africa is recovering from the deadliest Ebola outbreak in history.

More than 11,000 people have died since December 2013.

The latest cases were found in the Freetown slum of Magazine.

The north of Sierra Leone continues to be affected by Ebola, as does neighbouring Guinea.

Liberia, the other country affected by the recent outbreak, was declared Ebola free in May after 42 days without a new case.

Last month, six people were put in isolation in prison in Guinea after being accused of travelling with a corpse of a relative who had died of Ebola.

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28 June 2015

Sierra Leone will jail Ebola law violators

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© AFP/File | A health workers from the Sierra Leone's Red Cross Society Burial Team 7 prepares to remove a corpse from a house in Freetown on November 12, 2014

FREETOWN (AFP) - One of the three districts of Sierra Leone where new cases of Ebola have been recorded will jail those who break a new emergency by-law designed to prevent the spread of the disease, an official said Sunday.

The District Ebola Response Centre Coordinator, Raymond Kabia said "a high-level stakeholders meeting" on Friday decided that "violators of the by-laws would no longer be fined but will go to jail for six months instead".

"People caught in sacred burials and washing bodies, transporting sick people in vehicles, traditional healers treating the sick and those hiding sick people in homes will be jailed for six months without the option of fines", he told local reporters in Port Loko, 74 miles north of the capital.

"We have sacked over ten Section Chiefs and similar number of village headmen in the past and fined them... but people have still not learned the lesson. This time anyone who thinks this is a joke will be playing with fire," he said.

The official said President Ernest Bai Koroma has ordered all government ministers and lawmakers from the districts affected to go to the areas to help in the operation to stop new infections.

Officials who returned to the capital on Sunday after a two-day assessment tour of Port Loko and Kambia blamed herbalists in the two districts for spreading the virus by secretly treating sick people in the belief that the disease is linked to witchcraft and sorcery.

A total of 1,029 people are under quarantine.

The worst outbreak of Ebola in history began in Sierra Leone in October.

It has seen nearly 27,500 infections in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea of which more than 11,200 have been fatal, although official data is widely believed to have underestimated the figures.

The numbers of infections has slowed dramatically in recent months.

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Ebola crisis: Liberia quarantine after death

6 hours ago

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The latest Ebola outbreak has killed thousands of people across West Africa

Liberia's authorities have quarantined the area where a 17-year-old boy died of Ebola.

This is the first reported case of Ebola in Liberia since it was declared free of the disease seven weeks ago.

Deputy health minister Tolbert Nyenswah said tests confirmed that the teenager from Nedowein village, near the international airport, had died of the disease on 28 June.

Officials are investigating how he contracted Ebola, Mr Nyenswah said.

More than 11,000 people have died of the disease since December 2013, the vast majority of them in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone.

The countries had largely curbed the spread of the disease - but the number of new cases has risen recently, with the start of the rainy season in West Africa.

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Analysis: BBC News website health editor Michelle Roberts

The news that a 17-year-old has died of Ebola in Liberia is deeply troubling.

The country was thought to be free of the deadly virus - no cases had been reported for the past seven weeks, until now.

Officials are urging people not to panic and instead "go about their business as normal".

They say they have the situation in hand - the teenager's body was buried safely and surveillance has been stepped up.

But it is not clear how the young man caught the virus and who he may have been in contact with before he died. Liberians must remain vigilant if they are to banish Ebola for good.

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Mr Nyenswah told the BBC's Jonathan Paye-Layleh in Monrovia that the authorities were dealing with the situation effectively and there was no need for the public to panic.

"We have said over and over again that there was a possibility that there could be a resurgence of the virus in Liberia," he said. "But our surveillance team, our capacity is very strong.

"The only complication is that the person died before we tested the body as part of our surveillance system."

The number of people quarantined in Nedowein, about 30 miles (48km) from the capital, would be made available later, Mr Nyenswah said.

The authorities were investigating whether the dead man had contracted the disease as a result of travel, he said.

The man's body had been buried safely, in accordance with guidelines to check the spread of Ebola, he added.

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Ebola crisis: Liberia's new outbreak spreads

3 hours ago

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Liberian authorities on Tuesday quarantined an area on Tuesday where the teenager's corpse was found but two more cases have been announced

A second case of Ebola has been confirmed in Liberia, following the death of a teenager from the virus on Sunday, officials say.

The country had been declared Ebola-free more than seven weeks ago.

The new case was in Nedowein, the same village where the boy died, the ministry of information said.

Liberia's authorities quarantined the area after the teenager's death and said his funeral was carried out safely.

The BBC's Jonathan Paye-Layleh says the man who tested positive for Ebola did not live with the teenager who died, and has been moved to a treatment centre.

Health official Cestus Tarpeh told AFP news agency that the person had been in physical contact with the 17-year-old before his death.

He added that a herbalist who had treated the boy had evaded the authorities and was on the run.

It is not clear how the teenager who died was infected.

People are infected when they have direct contact through broken skin, or the mouth and nose, with the blood, vomit, faeces or bodily fluids of someone with Ebola.

More than 11,000 people have died of the disease since December 2013, the vast majority of them in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone.

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