Corpse tests positive for Ebola in Liberia, one month after country declared Ebola free

A resident of Liberia.
(Image credit: John Moore/Getty Images)

More than a month after the World Health Organization declared Liberia free of Ebola, the corpse of a 17-year-old tested positive for the virus.

WHO made the announcement after 42 days passed without a case of Ebola being reported. Since the teen's death on June 24, no other cases have been reported, Tolbert Nyenswah, the country's deputy health minister and head of the Ebola response team, told The Associated Press. "We have said over and over again there was possibility that there could be a resurgence of the virus in Liberia," Nyenswah said. "But our surveillance teams, our capacity is very strong."

Liberia was hit hard by the outbreak that started in 2014, and more than 11,100 people have died from Ebola in West Africa since last year. Officials are not sure how the young man contracted Ebola; the virus is still in Guinea and Sierra Leone, but he did not live close to those borders. Nyenswah said officials are looking into his recent travel, and added that residents of the teenager’s town, 30 miles south of Monrovia, have nothing to worry about. "There is no need for pandemonium," he said. "People should go about their normal business."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us
Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.