New Ebola case in Sierra Leone quarantine village: president

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http://news.yahoo.com/ebola-case-sierra ... 52935.html

Freetown (AFP) - Another woman has tested positive for Ebola in a village in northern Sierra Leone already under quarantine after the death of a 67-year-old woman a week ago, President Ernest Bai Koroma said.

Koroma said the new case, confirmed on Saturday, had been in contact with the woman who died on August 28 in the village of Sellu Kafta in Kambia district.

"The incident is a reminder that Ebola is still here so we must continue to adhere to the precautionary measures made by the health authorities," he urged.

"As a government we have (recently) extended the state of public health emergency to deal with such occurrences.

"The fact that we still have new cases (emerging) means that we need the regulation and we will continue to use it" to halt the transmission chain, the president stressed.

The latest death had brought to an abrupt end the optimism fuelled by the release of what had been Sierra Leone's last known Ebola patient from hospital in the central city of Makeni in late August.

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http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/09/ ... ZZ20150908

New Sierra Leone Ebola cases frustrate efforts to end outbreak

Sierra Leone has recorded four new cases of Ebola in a village on its northern border and will likely see more infections in a further setback to efforts to end an 18-month West African epidemic, a senior health official said on Tuesday.

The new cases recorded since the start of the weekend in Sella Kaffta, a village in Kambia District, were all individuals who came into direct contact with a woman who died of the disease late last month.

Pallo Conteh, head of Sierra Leone's National Ebola Response Centre, said the woman's family had failed to notify authorities when she fell ill and instead cared for her themselves.

"I am expecting more cases," he said. "We are sure that the body was washed ... so all those who took part in the washing of the corpse, all those who were helping her when she was having wet symptoms would all become infected."

While soldiers and police have been brought in to ensure that over 1,000 villagers remain in their homes during a quarantine period, Conteh said one individual who had been in contact with the dead woman was still missing.

Authorities were attempting to track her through her telephone communications, he added.

The tradition of washing bodies before burial has been one of the primary sources of transmission over the course of the regional epidemic, which has killed over 11,300 people mostly in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea.

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