200 People Are to Be Vaccinated in Sierra Leone After Ebola Death

The World Health Organization is to begin vaccinating about 200 people in Sierra Leone who came into contact with a woman who died from Ebola on Saturday.

The woman, a 67-year-old from the Kambia district near the border with Guinea, died just five days after the country discharged its last known Ebola patient from hospital, reports Reuters. Sierra Leone had begun a 42-day countdown to being declared Ebola-free — the last reported case of the disease being on Aug. 8.

“We will vaccinate those … who came into direct contact with the deceased and those contacts they also came into close contact with,” said WHO spokesperson Margaret Harris.

The head of the National Ebola Response Center in Sierra Leone, Pallo Conteh, said more Ebola cases in the country are likely to be reported.

Ebola experts are still investigating the source of transmission and have appealed to the niece of the woman to come forward as she was at high risk.

Last year’s deadly outbreak infected more than 28,000 people in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone and killed more than 11,300.

[Reuters]