Liberia confirmed a third Ebola case on Thursday, nearly two months after it was declared Ebola free, and officials said they were investigating whether the disease had managed to lurk in animals before resurfacing. Dr Moses Massaquoi, case management team leader for Liberia’s Ebola task force, said the three villagers who had tested positive for the disease had shared a meal of dog meat, which is commonly eaten in Liberia.
“They come from the same time and have a history of having had dog meat together,” he said.
The response team was investigating whether domestic animals might be carrying the virus, he said, referring also to mysterious deaths of hundreds of cattle in remote Lofa county.
Liberia, the country worst hit by the west African Ebola outbreak last year, was also its biggest success story: the only one of the three hard-hit countries so far to be declared Ebola free.
The outbreak was declared over in Liberia on May 9, even as cases have continued to emerge in neighbouring Sierra Leone and Guinea. Liberia accounts for more than 4 800 of the 11 220 deaths in the west African outbreak.
A teenager has died of Ebola in a remote Liberian village, shattering hopes the nation defeated the disease in May when the World Health Organization declared the country virus- free. Tolbert Nyenswah, Liberian deputy minister for surveillance and disease control, said Tuesday that the virus had been positively identified in the 17-year-old boy’s remains.
