Sierra Leone records no new Ebola cases

Sierra Leone has not recorded a new case of Ebola in the last week, a first since the outbreak reached the country in March last year, the World Health Organization said Monday.

"This is very good news but we have to keep doing this intensive working with communities to identify potential new cases," said Anders Nordstrom, the WHO representative in the west African country.

The development comes after Sierra Leone's President Ernest Bai Koroma said only two people were being treated for Ebola nationwide.

The WHO said health officials in the country were now only tracking one transmission chain of the virus, a significant development as such tracking takes substantial manpower and resources.

When a patient is confirmed to have Ebola, health workers compile a list of everyone the patient has come in contact with, visiting those contacts as frequently as possible for 21 days to see if they develop symptoms.

Local health officials said at the weekend that only 86 people in Sierra Leone were in quarantine nationwide.

Ebola has claimed around 11,300 lives since late 2013. More than 99 percent of these occurred in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, according to the World Health Organization.

Credit: AFP