World Health Organisation declares Sierra Leone Ebola

The epidemic was first reported in Sierra Leone 18 months ago, when a woman tested positive after contracting the virus at the funeral of a healer who had been treating Ebola patients on the Guinea border. Forty-two days, that is two Ebola virus incubation cycles, have now passed since the last person confirmed to have Ebola virus disease had a second negative blood test.

FILE – A health worker checks the temperature of a girl at the entrance to a Red Cross facility in the town of Koidu, Sierra Leone.

Bayraytay said a few of the activities being planned for Saturday include a vigil by the civil society female organization to honor health workers, including those who lost their lives to the virus.

Palo Conteh, the head of Sierra Leone’s Ebola response, has indicated that there are no plans for “an elaborate celebration” of the country’s Ebola-free status.

“Today, November 7, 2015, the World Health Organization declares the end of the Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone”, Dr Anders Nordstrom, the WHO’s country representative said at a ceremony in the capital Freetown.

Saturday’s announcement follows Liberia being affirmed free of the virus in May. It’s a benchmark that neighboring Liberia reached in May only to then experience a brief reappearance of cases before it was declared free from transmissions again in September.

But authorities in Sierra Leone have been warned to remain vigilant as the country enters a 90-day intensive surveillance period.

“We now have a unique opportunity to support Sierra Leone to build a strong and resilient public health system ready to detect and respond to the next outbreak of disease, or any other public health threat.” said Dr Nordström.

At the peak of the outbreak in 2014, Sierra Leone and its neighbours were reporting hundreds of new cases a week, with social order on the brink of collapse. Sierra Leone’s death toll was 3,955 people.