Ebola survivor likely source of new Liberian outbreak: WHO

Monrovia

A resurgence of Ebola in Liberia is likely to have originated in a survivor still carrying the virus, scientists said Wednesday as the country announced a second death in the new outbreak.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said the genetic sequence of the virus sampled from the 17-year-old victim at the centre of the first cases for three months did not match variants circulating in neighbouring Guinea or Sierra Leone.

"The origin of the cluster of cases remains under investigation," the agency said in it latest situation report on an epidemic that has killed more than 11,250 people in the three countries.

"Preliminary evidence from genomic sequencing strongly suggests that the most likely origin of transmission is a re-emergence of the virus from a survivor within Liberia."

The country was declared free of transmission on May 9, six weeks after the funeral of Ruth Tugbah, a 44-year old fruit seller who is thought to have contracted the virus through sex with her boyfriend, an Ebola survivor.