WHO reported 79 new cases of the Ebola virus last week, adding to the almost 25,000 total number of infections and 10,000 deaths since last summer. Ebola is still spreading in West Africa and on Friday, a Liberian woman was added to the list of known cases.
The 71 people she has had contact with are being monitored, according WHO. "The patient is not a contact associated with the country's last confirmed case, who tested negative for Ebola virus disease for a second time on 3 March," WHO said in an update published on Wednesday. "Investigations into how the patient was exposed to Ebola are ongoing."
No cases of Ebola contracted by sexual contact have been reported, but WHO reports that Ebola can live in semen for up to three months and survivors have been urged to avoid sexual contact or use a condom post recovery. Dr. Francis Kateh, acting head of Liberia's Ebola Case Management Team, told the Associated Press that samples are being taken from the woman's boyfriend and tested.
This most recent Ebola infection interrupted the 42-day countdown that a country must wait before it is declared Ebola-free. The last case of Ebola had been discharged on March 5.
"It means that we must keep up the prevention more aggressively," President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf told state radio, according to NBC News. "It's one person that is being properly traced, so that the disease does not spread."
