LONDON, Jan 15 (Reuters) - At around the same time the World Health Organization was announcing on Thursday that the deadliest ever Ebola outbreak was officially over, a British laboratory in Sierra Leone was testing a swab from a woman who had died two days earlier.
The sample proved positive.
The accident of timing provided a dramatic illustration of the difficulty facing authorities in deciding when to declare an end to a major health emergency. An aid agency report seen by Reuters said the woman, Mariatu Jalloh, had potentially exposed at least 27 other people to the disease.
A British health agency, Public Health England (PHE), confirmed it had tested the sample from Jalloh at its laboratory in Makeni, in the north of the west African country.
“The sample was tested for the first time on Thursday morning – around the same time as the WHO declared the Ebola outbreak over”, Tim Brooks, head of PHE’s rare and imported pathogens lab, told Reuters.
“Ebola tests take approximately four hours to complete,” he said. The results were communicated to Sierra Leone’s health ministry “on Thursday afternoon, immediately after the initial positive Ebola test result was confirmed”.
The Makeni lab, funded by the British government, is providing Ebola testing as part of ongoing surveillance for the viral disease, which has killed more than 11,300 people in the two-year epidemic in West Africa.
A spokesman for the WHO defended the decision to declare an end to the outbreak on Thursday after 42 days without any new cases in Liberia, the last country to be declared Ebola-free.
He said there was a key difference between ongoing transmission and sporadic cases.
“This really reflects what we have been saying...that there is a risk, and this outbreak is in a critical phase right now where we are moving from case management to management of risk,” WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic told reporters in Geneva.
He added that “it is really important that people don’t understand this 42-day announcement as the sign that we should all just pack up and go home. We should stay there and be ready to respond to these possible cases.”
The risk of flare-ups stems from the ability of the virus to persist for months even in those who survive Ebola, including in breast milk, semen and other body fluids.
(Reporting by Kate Kelland in London and Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva, editing by Mark Trevelyan)
Photos Show What Life Is Like As An Ebola Survivor
(01 of08)
Open Image Modal"When someone living in her compound in Rosanda died from Ebola, Eisha took her children to a farm 10 kilometers (6 miles) away, where they camped for three months until the epidemic was under control in the village," Lyons wrote. (credit:Daniel Jack Lyons)
(02 of08)
Open Image ModalThis village elder was a leader in the time of the crisis, advocating for people to seek treatment the moment they showed any symptoms of Ebola. (credit:Daniel Jack Lyons)
(03 of08)
Open Image ModalElvis B. Mokholo was the only one out of his five siblings to survive from Ebola. (credit:Daniel Jack Lyons)
(04 of08)
Open Image ModalThis well in Rosanda was donated and installed during the height of the crisis to encourage villagers to was their hands. It was the village's first well. (credit:Daniel Jack Lyons)
(05 of08)
Open Image Modal"During the height of the epidemic, people were not allowed to congregate due to the highly contagious nature of the disease," Lyons wrote. "This photo was the first wedding to be held in over seven months in the district of Makeni, Sierra Leone." (credit:Daniel Jack Lyons)
(06 of08)
Open Image ModalThe Ebola cemetery in the district of Makeni, Sierra Leone, has more than 600 graves. (credit:Daniel Jack Lyons)
(07 of08)
Open Image Modal"Before the crisis, we used to all eat together. Children from neighboring houses would come together to help prepare a large amount of food that we would then eat together as a community. Since the crisis, people are not doing this as much as they used to. There is still a lot of division within our community since the Ebola crisis," Hawa Singbeh, from Gbolakai-Ta, said. "That's why I prepared a large meal for us to eat together, to demonstrate that we can return to our normal customs and eat together again. This is another way we can overcome stigma in our community." (credit:Hawa Singbeh)
(08 of08)
Open Image ModalSister survivors in Rosanda, Sierra Leone. (credit:Daniel Jack Lyons)
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