Survivors of the Ebola outbreak at a clinic outside Monrovia. (Reuters)
Freetown:
Ebola has killed at least two people in the last remaining district in Sierra Leone that had been unaffected by the virus, a government health officer said on Thursday.
Sierra Leone is one of three West African nations at the epicentre of the worst outbreak on record, which has killed close to 4,500 people since first appearing in the Guinean forest last December.
As Ebola spread across the rest of Sierra Leone, locals in the far northern Koinadugu district had tried to block movement in and out of the area to stop anyone bringing in the haemorrhagic fever.
However, disease surveillance officer Abdul K. Sesay said two of six samples taken from the village of Fankoya, where suspicious deaths had been recorded, tested positive on Wednesday.
"We have tightened surveillance around the area and are investigating ... how the two confirmed cases might have contracted the disease," said Sesay.
Local and international health authorities are scrambling teams and supplies to help West African nations but, as of now, there are no Ebola treatment centres in Sierra Leone's north.
Sierra Leone is one of three West African nations at the epicentre of the worst outbreak on record, which has killed close to 4,500 people since first appearing in the Guinean forest last December.
As Ebola spread across the rest of Sierra Leone, locals in the far northern Koinadugu district had tried to block movement in and out of the area to stop anyone bringing in the haemorrhagic fever.
However, disease surveillance officer Abdul K. Sesay said two of six samples taken from the village of Fankoya, where suspicious deaths had been recorded, tested positive on Wednesday.
"We have tightened surveillance around the area and are investigating ... how the two confirmed cases might have contracted the disease," said Sesay.
Local and international health authorities are scrambling teams and supplies to help West African nations but, as of now, there are no Ebola treatment centres in Sierra Leone's north.
© Thomson Reuters 2014
Track Latest News Live on NDTV.com and get news updates from India and around the world
