Liberia declared Ebola-free but…the “job is still not done”

Sierra Leone was declared free of the virus on 7th November, but the region as a whole was declared clear when Liberia was pronounced Ebola-free on Thursday.

Health officials in Sierra Leone have confirmed a death from Ebola, moment after the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared the West Africa outbreak over, according to the BBC.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon warned on Wednesday that Ebola virus outbreaks would happen in 2016 despite the fact that all known chains of Ebola transmission had been stopped in West Africa.

“We are now at a critical period in the Ebola epidemic as we move from managing cases and patients to managing the residual risk of new infections”.

Two swab tests carried out on the deceased person by British health organization Public Health England came back positive in the north of the country, the spokesman said late last night. “This will assist EVD survivors to reintegrate into family and community life, reduce stigma and minimize the risk of Ebola virus transmission”, he said. Expert reviews of the Ebola response led by the United Nations, the Harvard Global Health Institute and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, the National Academy of Medicine, and others offer the opportunity to build a smarter, swifter global pandemic response system.

Ebola is spread through direct contact with the bodily fluids of people who are sick or bodies of the dead.

The epidemic dwarfed all previous outbreaks of the haemorrhagic fever, killing some 11,300 people and leaving numerous 17,000 survivors with lingering symptoms.

“Ebola has exacted an enormous toll on Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone”.

“A high-level team of ministry of health officials and key partners including the World Health Organization and the Atlanta-based Centre for Disease Control are in the area from the capital to undertake intensive investigations”, Sierra Leone government spokesman Abdulai Bayrayta told AFP following the suspected new case.