Ebola outbreak in west Africa over

The good news in Liberia, which will now enter a three month period of heightened surveillance, follows Guinea’s declaration of its Ebola-free status in December and Sierra Leone’s in November past year.

According to the World Health Organization, all known transmission chains of the virus have been stemmed in West Africa, and that there has been no new case of Ebola infection detected in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia for 42 days.

However, the organisation has warned of risks that the disease, which killed more than 11,300 people out of 28,600 cases during the epidemic, could flare up again.

“Detecting and breaking every chain of transmission has been a monumental achievement”, WHO Director-General Margaret Chan said in the statement.

Commending the national authorities of the affected countries and the local communities, Ban acknowledged “the vital role played by the health workers and burial teams in the Ebola response”, the statement said.

“We are appreciating the facts that China deployed a large number of health care providers and public health specialists, they played important roles in treatment of individuals, investigating cases and tracking down contacts”, Brennan told Xinhua. There have been 10 such flare-ups at the end of the outbreak, due largely to the persistence of the virus in survivors.

However, research has shown that although Ebola disappears relatively quickly from survivors, among males, it can remain in the semen for up to one year and be transmitted to partners. Although Brennan says they are “anticipating more”, the risk of triggering a new outbreak from these flare-ups is low.

At least 11,315 people died from Ebola: 4,809 deaths were reported in Liberia, while Sierra Leone recorded 3,955 deaths and at least 2,536 people perished in Guinea.

Liberia was previously declared Ebola-free in May, but the virus soon flared up twice more.

The WHO and others have been roundly criticized for responding too slowly at the beginning of the outbreak, a fumbling that experts say ultimately cost lives across West Africa.

Reviews of what happened during the outbreak exposed the major problems of the health systems in all three countries, as well as the shortcomings of the global community.

“As part of this effort, the World Bank Group, World Health Organization, and government and private sector partners are developing a Pandemic Emergency Financing Facility to provide swift and flexible financing to help stop a severe outbreak from becoming a more deadly and costly pandemic, thereby saving lives and protecting economies”.

Joanne Liu, MD, MSF’s global president, said “Today is a day of celebration and relief that this outbreak is finally over”.