Summary: The last confirmed Ebola Virus Disease case in Liberia was reported on 6 April and the last contact tracing was concluded on 5 May. This means that clinical case management and contact tracing activities have been scaled down, while social mobilization, awareness raising and key messaging continue at full pace due to the continuous caseload in Guinea. The Liberian Red Cross Society support to the government in contact tracing is on hold (no active contacts), but psychosocial support to contacts of clinical cases is on-going at community level.
The Ministry of Health & Social Welfare continues to conduct reclassification of the Ebola Virus Disease removing the confirmed negative cases from the suspected caseload count, thus reducing the total number of confirmed, probable and suspected cases to a current total of 12 with 9 deaths. The caseload summary since 24 March stands as below:
Confirmed cases across the border in Guinea continue to occur, with new confirmed cases being reported in Guéckédou region on the 10 May. Therefore the Ministry of Health & Social Welfare recommends a continued high implementation of the social mobilization activities due to the high risk of imported cases and cross boarder movement. The lack of historical evidence of previous outbreaks in the region inhibits full scenario planning, however cultural and epidemiological factors mean that while active cases are still occurring in the area, a full response is warranted in Liberia. The Liberian Red Cross Society Ebola team supported by the IFRC FACT and surge capacity personnel through the ERU system continues to assess the risk, and risk analyses of open borders, a high number of Guinea residents seeking health care at the Liberian side of the border and movement behaviour of border communities recommends continued full scale prevention interventions.