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WHO: At Least 48 People at-risk of Ebola in Sierra Leone have not been found

By Cheri Cheng | Update Date: Feb 04, 2016 11:32 AM EST

At least 48 people who might have been infected with Ebola in Sierra Leone have yet to be found, the World Health Organization (WHO) said. The United Nations health agency added that 18 of these people are considered to be high risk.

"We need to strengthen surveillance efforts to identify and investigate all patients with symptoms meeting the case definition in hospitals and communities and to investigate all deaths in the Kambia District and all districts," WHO representative Dr. Anders Nordstrom said on Wednesday reported by the New York Times.

Dr. Nordstrom added that health officials will continue to test all dead bodies for the virus until June 2016 to prevent another outbreak.

In the latest case, the virus was confirmed in a young woman after her death. The woman, who was not suspected of having Ebola, was given a traditional burial where many people could have easily come into contact with the virus. The woman's aunt later tested positive for Ebola and is currently being treated, while others are being monitored in quarantine.

So far, about 70 people from Kambia, Port Loko and Tonkolili, which are three northern districts in the West African country, who were being quarantined have been released after officials were able to conclude that they did not contract Ebola.

The Ebola outbreak, which started in December 2013, has killed more than 11,300 people, with the majority of the deaths occurring in the West African countries of Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea.

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