Sierra Leonne has been hit by a new case of Ebola just hours after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the West African outbreak over.
A woman is believed to have died from the disease in the northern village of Bamoi Luma, near the Guinean border.
The female student was taken ill and died soon after, with an initial swab testing positive for Ebola, a senior health ministry official said, according to the AFP news agency.
“Complete findings will be made known to the public by tomorrow [Friday],” he said, adding that further tests were under way.
Earlier on Thursday, the WHO said that a two-year Ebola epidemic that killed more than 11,000 people and triggered a global health alert was over, with Liberia the last country to get the clearance.
At its peak, Ebola devastated Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, with bodies piling up in the streets of the three worst-hit West African nations after it emerged in Southern Guinea in December 2013.
Liberia, the country worst hit by the outbreak with 4 800 deaths, discharged its last two patients from hospital, the father and younger brother of a 15-year-old victim on December 3, 2015.
Ebola causes severe fever and muscle pain, weakness, vomiting and diarrhoea. In many cases it shuts down organs and causes unstoppable internal bleeding. Patients often succumb within days.
Reaction to Thursday’s announcement was muted in the capital Monrovia, where locals have become accustomed to good news on Ebola being followed by setbacks, and there was no official programme of celebration.
