Ebola crisis: Liberia's new outbreak spreads

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Health workers leave after they took a blood specimen from a child to test for the Ebola virus in a area were a 17-year old boy died from the virus on the outskirts of Monrovia, Liberia, Tuesday, June 30, 2015Image source, AP
Image caption,
Liberian authorities on Tuesday quarantined an area on Tuesday where the teenager's corpse was found but two more cases have been announced

Two more cases of Ebola have been confirmed in Liberia following the death of a teenager from the virus on Sunday, officials say.

The country had been declared Ebola-free more than seven weeks ago.

Both of the new cases were in Nedowein, the same village where the boy died, the ministry of information says.

Liberia's authorities quarantined the area after the teenager's death and said his funeral was carried out safely.

Health official Cestus Tarpeh told AFP news agency that the pair had been in physical contact with the 17 year old before his death.

He added that a herbalist who had treated the boy had evaded the authorities and was on the run.

It is not clear how the teenager who died was infected.

There has been some confusion about whether one or two extra cases have been confirmed.

People are infected when they have direct contact through broken skin, or the mouth and nose, with the blood, vomit, faeces or bodily fluids of someone with Ebola.

More than 11,000 people have died of the disease since December 2013, the vast majority of them in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone.

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