The deadly Ebola virus is back in Freetown, Sierra Leone. This was announced by health authorities on Tuesday dashing hopes of about 1.2 million people residing in densely-populated Freetown.
The government’s National Ebola Response Centre (NERC) on Tuesday recorded three cases which emerged in the east-end slum of Magazine Wharf — three weeks after the last known infections in the capital.
Health officials said six people have been under observation since the first of the new cases — a casual labourer — tested positive on June 17. Authorities are concerned that the case could lead to a mini-outbreak in the overcrowded fishing community, which has poor sanitation and is regularly hit by outbreaks of malaria and cholera.
Liberia was declared Ebola-free in May, but hopes that neighbouring Sierra Leone and Guinea would quickly follow suit have been dashed recently, with the weekly toll of infections in the two countries hovering around 25.
The World Health Organization (WHO) warned earlier this month that the retreat of the virus “that was apparent throughout April and early May has stalled”. According to the WHO, as of June 21, there had been 27,443 confirmed, probable and suspected cases of Ebola in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, of which 11,207 were fatal.
Sierra Leone has seen almost half of the total caseload, reporting more than 3,900 deaths.
