WHO Declares End To Ebola Outbreak
The World Health Organisation has announced that they have officially declared an end to the Ebola virus outbreak in West Africa, after no new cases of Ebola was reported in Liberia.
While the WHO said that West Africa is now Ebola free, it cannot yet declare the world free of the disease.
The Ebola outbreak started in West Africa in late 2013, and for the next two years an astonishing number – estimated to be around 11 500 people – of people succumbed to the disease.
Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia were the hardest hit by the outbreak and most of these countries had to be placed under quarantine for months at a time.
Last May, Liberia was declared Ebola free, along with Guinea and Sierra Leone. However, two new cases of the disease was reported in that time and thus the WHO had to re-start the clock.
Rick Brennan, director of emergency risk assessment and humanitarian response at WHO, said that while this is an important milestone in the fight against Ebola, it does not mean they are out of the woods just yet:
“…While this is an important milestone and a very important step forward, we have to say that the job is still not done…That’s because there is still ongoing risk of re-emergence of the disease because of persistence of the virus in a proportion of survivors,” he said.
