# WHO declares west Africa to be Ebola-free; HOWEVER

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-declares-west-africa-to-be-ebola-free-however/743204>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [January 15, 2016, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-declares-west-africa-to-be-ebola-free-however/743204 "2016-01-15T06:02:40Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
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**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\
**Post date:** [January 15, 2016, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-declares-west-africa-to-be-ebola-free-however/743204/1 "2016-01-15T06:02:40Z")

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Less than 12 hours later, two cases, one of them fatal, turned up in Sierra Leone.

☹

> **[Ebola virus: New case emerges in Sierra Leone](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-35320363)**
>
> A new death from Ebola is confirmed in Sierra Leone, hours after the World Health Organization declared the latest West Africa outbreak over.

I believe that, like central Africa, this disease has been smoldering all along (and there is some antibody evidence to back this up) and the isolated cases are being diagnosed because they’re looking for it, as they should so people can get proper treatment and appropriate burial if they don’t make it.