A 67-year-old woman has died of Ebola in Sierra Leone on Sunday, as confirmed by the health officials, Fox News reports.
The Ebola death has occurred less than a week after the country's last known patient was discharged from a hospital.
Samples from the body of the woman who died in Kambia district in the country's north came back positive for Ebola, said chief medical officer Dr. Brima Kargbo.
After the last known Ebola patient was released from a hospital in Sierra Leone, the country began a 42-day countdown towards being declared free of Ebola transmission. The officials are now trying to find out if the woman in kambia died of Ebola before or after the countdown.
The National Ebola Response Center has now appointed teams to trace people who were in contact with the woman and might have contacted the disease, said OB Sisay, the center's director.
"We should not despair as we have been expecting this," Sisay said. "We need to stay focused and maintain our discipline."
The Ebola epidemic has killed nearly 4,000 people in Sierra Leone out of more than 13,500 confirmed, probable and suspected cases, according to the World Health Organization.
