A new case of Ebola has been confirmed in the West African nation of Liberia, the World Health Organization tweeted Friday — a reminder the fight against the virus is not entirely over despite successes in beating back an outbreak once described as the world’s worst.
The announcement comes a few days after WHO said the Ebola outbreak in West Africa was no longer a public health emergency of international concern.
The organization said there had been a small number of cases of late tied to a new transmission chain. In Guinea, for instance, seven of eight people infected recently with Ebola have died.
And in a tweet Friday, the international health agency insisted the end of the larger public health emergency still holds — even with the development in Liberia.
“Flare-ups, at decreasing frequency, are expected,” it noted.
Along with Guinea and Sierra Leone, Liberia was the epicenter of the 2014 Ebola outbreak. It had more than 10,000 documented cases as well as nearly 5,000 related deaths, more than any other country, according to WHO statistics.
Liberia was declared free of Ebola in March 2015, only to have the deadly disease rear its head again in subsequent months.
In September, WHO again made the same declaration after 42 days passed since tests showed the last infected person no longer had the disease.