A second person has been confirmed to have died of Ebola in Liberia, marking the further resurgence of a disease of which the country was previously declared free.
According to Tolbert Nyenswah, the Liberian Deputy Health Minister, the second patient to succumb to Ebola is a woman in her early 20s. She died on July 12 and has been linked to the first patient, a 17-year-old boy who died in June. Three other cases have been confirmed as well to be Ebola, but the patients are already undergoing treatment in the country's capital, Monrovia.
Over 120 people in Nedowein are under observation after being potentially exposed to the virus but will soon be discharged after completing the 21-day quarantine period and showing no signs of being infected.
To help reintegrate these people into their community, Nyenswah said a big ceremony will be held when they are allowed to go home.
Before the Ebola outbreak slowed down and was supposedly eradicated in the country, it had already claimed over 4,800 lives in Liberia.
Tests were conducted on samples taken from the first patient since Liberia was declared Ebola-free and results showed that the virus that caused the recent reinfection is genetically similar to those that primarily caused the outbreak over half a year ago.
With this, the cause of the Ebola resurgence in Liberia is narrowed down to a source within the country, crossing out viruses that may have been brought in by travelers from Sierra Leone or Guinea, where the disease is still hanging on. The World Health Organization also said that the results of the test also makes it unlikely that the offending virus was transmitted from an animal.
Nyenswah said Liberia is in control of the resurgence of the outbreak, quickly launching monitoring activities and isolating those who have gotten sick. Everyone in the country is also being reminded of protocols in place the last time that Ebola was making its way through Liberia.
Aside from keeping surroundings clean, one of the foremost ways of preventing the spread of Ebola is by properly burying those who have died from the disease as the virus remains active in the bodies of the dead. Even those who recover aren't completely rid of the virus immediately after getting well, so caution must be exercised to avoid contact with bodily fluids.
Photo: CDC Global | Flickr
