The World Health Organization (WHO) announced Friday that a new case of Ebola has been identified in Liberia, one of the three West African countries most severely hit by the outbreak over the past two years.
A 30-year-old woman died Thursday in Monrovia, Liberia's capital, while being transported to a hospital to treat the virus, according to a WHO statement.
The confirmation comes just days after WHO declared the virus was no longer considered a public health emergency of international concern. Investigations are underway.
#Ebola in West Africa is no longer a Public Health Emergency of Intl Concern, though high vigilance & response capacity must be maintained
WHO's Emergency Committee for International Health Regulations convened on March 29.
The director general noted that Liberia, Ivory Coast, and Guinea had each met the criteria to confirm the interruption of Ebola transmission — a 42-day observation period followed by a 90 days of enhanced surveillance — and declared that the virus that has killed more than 11,709 people should no longer be considered an international concern.
The committee continued to stress, however, that it expected flare-ups and clusters of Ebola cases to continue.
It said that previously affected countries "must maintain the capacity and readiness to prevent, detect and respond to any ongoing and/or new clusters in future."
WHO originally announced the end of Ebola in Liberia on May 9, 2015, and it is not the first country to experience a flare up since.
On Jan. 14, 2016, WHO declared a new case of Ebola in Sierra Leone. Another case was reported two months later in Guinea. Altogether, WHO has detected 12 new clusters of Ebola since the declared end of the epidemic.