Health officers attending to people during the Ebola outbreak in Liberia

A woman in Sierra Leone was suspected to have died from Ebola, officials said, just hours after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared an end to an epidemic of the disease in Liberia and the  West African region.

The female student was taken ill in the northern village of Bamoi Luma near the Guinean border and died soon after, with an initial swab testing positive for Ebola, a senior health ministry official said.

“Complete findings will be made known to the public today” he said, adding that further tests were under way.

Earlier Thursday the WHO said a two-year Ebola epidemic that killed more than 11,000 people and triggered a global health alert was over, with Liberia the last country to get the all-clear.

The deadliest outbreak in the history of the feared tropical virus wrecked the economies and health systems of the three worst-hit west African nations after it emerged in southern Guinea in December 2013.

At its peak, it devastated Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, with bodies piling up in the streets and overwhelmed hospitals recording hundreds of new cases a week.