SITUATION OVERVIEW
A total of 3 confirmed cases were reported Freetown and Tonkolili in the week to 26 July.
The two cases reported from Freetown were registered contacts residing in a voluntary quarantine facility at the time of symptom onset and rapidly isolated.
The remaining case is from Tonkolili where a 28 year old male travelled to Tonkolili from an area close to the Magazine Wharf neighbourhood of Freetown on 16 July to celebrate Eid with family, but was not a registered contact of any case from the Magazine Wharf transmission chain. On 19 July the case attended Lion Heart Hospital in Yelle, Tonkolili complaining of a headache, and was treated as an outpatient with malaria and discharged. Two days later on 21 July the case presented to Masanga hospital and was isolated on admission.
The patient died on 23 July and was confirmed EVD-positive after post -mortem testing. Over 600 contacts have been listed so far, several of whom are deemed to be high risk. Investigations are ongoing to establish the source of infection and identify and trace all contacts. Both hospitals and the village of Messesebah have been placed under quarantine.On 26 July, a total of 279 contacts were being monitored in 4 districts:
Kambia, Port Loko, Western Area Rural, and Western Area Urban.Laboratory indicators continue to reflect a heightened degree of vigilance, with 1918 new samples tested in the 7 days to 26 July. Fewer than 1% of samples tested positive for EVD.