New Ebola death in Sierra Leone

FREETOWN. KAZINFORM - A 16-year-old girl has died from Ebola in Sierra Leone, dealing a blow to optimism that the west African country has finally turned the page on the devastating epidemic.

The teenager died Sunday in the northern city of Makeni, the National Ebola Response Centre (NERC) said Monday, some two weeks after the death of a 67-year-old food trader in a neighbouring district. Kazinform refers to Arab News. On August 24, President Ernest Bai Koroma led a festive ceremony celebrating the discharge of Sierra Leone's last known Ebola patient, from a Makeni hospital. No new cases had been recorded in more than two weeks, allowing Sierra Leone to join neighbouring Liberia in the countdown to being declared Ebola-free, with Guinea the only country where people are still falling sick with the deadly haemorrhagic virus. NERC said the new death was "disappointing" but that response teams were well prepared to cope with such an event. It said the two deaths were not linked.