Liberia has released its last Ebola patient and
begun its countdown to being declared Ebola
free.
“I am one of the happiest human beings today
on earth because it was not easy going through
this situation and coming out alive,” 58-year old
English teacher Beatrice Yardolo told the AP
news agency after her release.
She kept thanking God and the health workers at
the Chinese-run Ebola treatment centre in the
Paynesville district of Monrovia, where she was
admitted to the on February 18.
Her release came as the World Health
Organisation (WHO) announced that Liberia had
gone a week without reporting any new cases of
Ebola – for the first time since last May.
Liberia “reported no new confirmed cases” during
the week to March 1, the UN health agency said
in a report late on Wednesday.
Since the outbreak began in December 2013,
23,969 people in nine countries have been
infected with the virus, and 9,807 of them have
died, according to the latest figures.
Of those, 9,249 cases, including 4,117 deaths,
were in Liberia, which six months ago was
reporting more than 300 new cases each week.
At the height of the epidemic in a country whose
health infrastructure had been ravaged by two
back-to-back civil wars, overflowing health clinics
had to turn away people, often to die on the
streets.
But a huge national and international response
helped stem the spread.
Of 45 samples tested nationwide last week, none
were positive, WHO said, adding that it was first
time there had been no new confirmed cases
since May 26, 2014.
The outlook was less positive in Guinea and
Sierra Leone, the other countries affected by the
outbreak, which jointly reported 132 new
confirmed cases last week.