Dead Teen Tests Positive for Ebola Virus in Liberia
Seven weeks after the World Health Organization declared the country free of the disease, Liberia’s deputy health minister said on Monday that the body of a 17-year-old boy had tested positive for Ebola, the Associated Press reports.
According to Assistant Minister of Health Tolbert Nyenswah, the teen died last Wednesday in the town of Nedowein, near Liberia’s international airport and far away from neighboring Guinea and Sierra Leone, which have continued to battle the virus.
It was not immediately clear how the boy contracted the disease, but officials have told the public not to panic, saying the situation is under control.
In May, WHO announced that Liberia was officially Ebola-free after no new cases had been reported for 42 days, twice the virus’s maximum incubation period. Since breaking out in West Africa last year, the CDC says Ebola has claimed more than 11,000 lives.
[Image via AP Images]