More than 690 persons have been
quarantined by the Health authorities in northern Sierra Leone on Monday,
following the death of a 16-year-old girl, who died of Ebola in an apparent
case of sexual transmission, the first confirmed death from the virus in the
district for nearly six months.
Announcing the development, Emmanuel Conteh, head of
the Ebola Response Centre for the district of Bombali in northern Sierra Leone, ”some 690 people in the village of Robuya
where Kadiatu lived would be isolated for three weeks”.
”Seven of her primary contacts have been taken to the Ebola
treatment unit. Three patients who came into contact with the girl at another
health facility have also been taken to the treatment unit”.
The teenage girl, Kadiatu Thullah, died on Sunday at
the International Medical Corps Ebola treatment unit, authorities said.
Conteh said health workers were investigating how the
teenager got infected, since she had not traveled outside the village in years.
Initial suspicions are that she had sex with an Ebola survivor.
“We are baffled by that possibility because the survivor in
question was discharged in March, way beyond the 90-day period within which
sexual transmission is possible,” he added.
Conteh, further warned of a possible new surge of the
virus after a woman died in the nearby Kambia district, on the border with
Guinea.
Nearly 1,000 people are into their second week of
quarantine there, but a “high risk” contact remains on the loose, Conteh said.
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