The corpse of a 17-year-old Liberian has tested positive for the Ebola virus, Liberia’s first reported case since the country was declared Ebola-free on May 9.

Liberia’s deputy health minister Tolbert Nyenswah stressed Tuesday that there is no need to panic. He said the victim has been safely buried and the team tracing the victim’s contacts has already begun work.

The Associated Press reports the 17-year-old male died on June 24.

The Ebola victim died in Margibi County, far from the borders of Guinea and Sierra Leone, the two other nations hardest hit by the virus. Nyenswah said experts are trying to figure out if the victim contracted the virus during travel.

Margibi County is close to the country’s international airport, about 50 kilometers south of the capital, Monrovia.

The World Health Organization declared Liberia free of the Ebola virus on May 9, after 42 days with no new cases reported. Forty-two days is twice the maximum incubation period for the deadly disease.

At last report, in the week ending June 21, the WHO said weekly case incidence for Ebola in West Africa had stalled at between 20 and 27 cases since the end of May. In Guinea, 12 cases were reported from the same four prefectures as cases reported in the previous week. In Sierra Leone, eight cases were reported from three districts.

Liberia is considering establishing a monument to the more than 4,000 Liberians who died in this latest Ebola outbreak. One possible site is the Disco Hill cemetery, an hour’s drive from Monrovia, where many of the victims of the virus were buried.
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