Ebola Death Confirmed Hours After West Africa Declared Virus Free

A patient died from Ebola earlier this week in Sierra Leone, tests confirmed, just hours after the U.N.’s World Health Organization declared West Africa free from the virus on Thursday.

Sierra Leone was confirmed Ebola-free in November, but two tests on the recently deceased registered positive for the virus, Ebola test center spokesman Sidi Yahya Tunis told the BBC. Health officials are now trying to track the last movements of the patient, who died in the country’s Tonkolili district.

Although the WHO’s Thursday declaration signaled the end to two-year epidemic that killed 11,000 people, the organization warned that small flare-ups of the disease might occur.

[BBC]