Sierra Leone Quarantines Nearly 700 People After New Ebola Death

Sierra Leone has reportedly quarantined nearly 700 people after a tennage girl was infected with Ebola for the first time in six months in one of the country's rural northern regions.

Health ministry spokesman Seray Turay told media outlets that the 16-year-old girl died Sunday in the rural northern province of Makeni, and since her death over 680 close family relatives, schoolmates and friends have been quarantined for additional caution.

"They are classified as high risk although they have not exhibited any signs and symptoms of the disease," Turay said in the statement, adding that "the surveillance team of the Ebola response centre have intensified their investigations and is working to nip the issue in the bud."

Sierra Leone was one of several African countries on its way to declaring itself Ebola-free after not having another new case in several weeks. The deadly disease killed thousands in the African countries when its first outbreak began in 2013.

Sierra Leone's recent outbreak comes shortly after the World Health Organization announced that Liberia had been Ebola-free for the second time in 2015.

The WHO "commends the government of Liberia and its people on the successful response to this recent re-emergence."

The Center for Diseae Control and Prevention wrote in a recent report on the Ebola virus that the best method for avoiding the deadly disease is early detection.

"The rapid identification and control of this most recent Ebola cluster highlight the important achievements [the Liberia Ministry of Health] has made in enhancing its public health response capacity," researchers with the CDC wrote in a health journal earlier this month.