New Cases of Ebola Have Appeared in Liberia

Despite initial reports confirming the eradication of the disease in the African country, new cases of Ebola have appeared in Liberia. Only on Friday, Liberia released a report that the last group of people been exposed to the virus had finished their quarantine and the country was officially free of the virus. But today, these hopes were dashed with the emergence of yet new cases.

The people who were placed in quarantine were those who had treated the last case of Ebola or the family of the victim. And things were looking up, as nobody was found carrying the disease for 21 days. But sadly, it has returned to the country once again.

Since the disease sprung up back in March 2014, it has killed 11,300 people in the three countries that were affected: Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.

A massive epidemic is unlikely at this point, but it is still possible for people who are infected to pass the disease on to other people in hospitals or within the community. This is why, countries that are struggling with the deadly virus must continue to allocate funds for its prevention and eradication. James Dorbor Jallah, a representative of Liberia’s Ebola Task Force foresees a long time of dealing with the problem.

Experts are now doing tests on the body of the last person who died of the disease, Nathan Gbotoe, a 15 year-old boy. They are performing genetic sequencing in order to find out details about how he contracted it. But a long time might pass before we get to see the results, as much care must be taken with procedures that stand to benefit the three afflicted countries.

What must be determined with the greatest urgency is where the infection comes from and in order to establish this, experts must compare the samples obtained from the newer cases with those that exist in the Liberian database, to find a match. If a match is not found, then they will proceed to compare the samples with sequences found in Sierra Leone and Guinea.

However, investigations are advanced and the experts believe that they will soon be able to establish with precision where the new cases originated.

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