AFP
FREETOWN
A new case of Ebola has been confirmed in Sierra Leone, officials said Thursday, the second case since west Africa celebrated a declared end to the epidemic last week. The World Health Organization said the new case was the aunt of 22-year-old Marie Jalloh, who died of Ebola on January 12. The 38-year-old woman “was a primary caregiver during (her niece’s) illness,” WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic told AFP in an email. He added that the patient had developed symptoms on Wednesday while she was being monitored at a quarantine facility. “The patient is being treated now,” Jasarevic said. Sierra Leone’s health ministry spokesman Sidi Yahya Tunis also confirmed the new case, saying the aunt had helped wash Jalloh’s body to prepare it for an Islamic burial. “We are expecting other cases particularly from those who washed the body before the burial of Marie,” he told reporters. Ebola is at its most infectious as people are dying or in the bodies of those who have died from the virus. After Jalloh’s case was confirmed last week, officials in Sierra Leone said 100 people she had contact with had been quarantined, sobering news that came just days after the region thought it had overcome the devastating epidemic.