Liberia has confirmed its first new Ebola case in more than a month in a setback to hopes the country would soon be officially declared free of the deadly disease.
The country was the hardest hit at the peak of the epidemic in west Africa and has seen more than 4,000 deaths in all, but was at an advanced stage in its recovery and was expecting to be declared Ebola-free by mid-April before the latest case in the capital Monrovia.
“A woman has been confirmed as an Ebola patient… This is a new case after we have gone more than 27 days without a single case. It is a setback,” government spokesman Lewis Brown told AFP.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) announced earlier this month that no new case of the deadly virus had been registered in Liberia since February 19.
It was not immediately clear where the new patient became infected, as all contacts associated with the last known chain of transmission completed the 21-day observation period during which symptoms of Ebola are exhibited, according to the WHO.
A source close to the case, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, said the woman was the wife of a cured Ebola patient.
According to experts, a patient can still transmit the virus through sex days after being cured.
