{The head of Sierra Leone`s National Ebola Response Center (NERC) Wednesday warned that the country must brace itself up for more new cases of the disease.}
The warning follows the identification of 92 “high risk contacts” in the northern district of Tonkolili.
Tonkolili is one of the two last transmission chains in the country`s battle against the Ebola epidemic. Over 500 people are still in quarantine in the region after a man died of the virus there.
According to figures released by the NERC on Wednesday, only two confirmed cases of the viral disease are currently in treatment centers nationwide, and both are from Tonkolili.
“There will undoubtedly be more cases from these contacts and we are ready to diagnose them early and give them the best possible treatment available,” said Major (rtd) Alfred Palo Conteh, NERC Chief Executive Officer.
As predicted, this week turned out to be another record in the course of the epidemic, ending with the lost weekly total cases since the disease broke out last year. There were only two new confirmed cases – one in Sierra Leone and the other in Guinea.
Conteh told journalists in Freetown on Wednesday that a new plan was been hatched to lead the country to a resilient zero. Details of the plan are yet to be released, but it will include strict monitoring of people traveling between the capital and the interior of the country, particularly the north.
The case in Tonkolili has been confirmed to have come from a slum in Freetown.
“We have seen how one man travelled to a silent district, fell ill and created a large number of new quarantines. This could easily recur in any of the silent districts and we must do all we can to prevent a recurrence elsewhere,” said Conteh.
Agencies
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