New Ebola case emerges in Sierra Leone

Health officials in Sierra Leone have confirmed a
death from Ebola, hours after the World Health
Organization declared the West Africa outbreak
over.
The country was declared free of the virus on 7
November, and the region as a whole cleared
when Liberia was pronounced Ebola-free on
Thursday.
But two tests conducted on a boy who died in
northern Sierra Leone proved positive for the
virus, a health ministry spokesman told the BBC.
It is not clear when the boy died.
Health ministry spokesman Sidi Yahya Tunis told
the BBC that the boy had died in the northern
Tonkolili district. The tests were conducted by
British health experts.
Close to 4,000 people died of Ebola in Sierra
Leone, and 11,000 people across the region, since
December 2013.
In declaring West Africa clear after the recent
outbreak on Thursday, the WHO warned that the
area was susceptible to small flare-ups of the
virus.
Liberia was the last country to see the end of
active transmission of Ebola. But it had been
declared clear twice before, only for the infection
to re-emerge.
A country is considered free of human-to-human
transmission once two 21-day incubation periods
have passed since the last known case tested
negative for a second time