World Health Organization declares the nation of Guinea free of Ebola transmissions

In total, at least 11,300 people were killed in the outbreak – the largest Ebola epidemic in history – the vast majority of victims lived in the three West African nations.

“It’s cause for celebration, because people are day to day living in very tough conditions”, said Susan Michaels-Strasser, a professor at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health and a nurse who treated Ebola patients in Liberia.

In Conakry, the capital, there will be a free concert with music from Youssou N’Dour of Senegal and Tiken Jah Fakoly of the Ivory Coast, along with hundreds of local artists who helped spread the word about Ebola during the epidemic.

Ms Wellesley-Cole said one of the difficulties she and other workers encountered fighting the Ebola virus was differentiating it from other diseases such as malaria.

Liberia and Sierra Leone were earlier declared Ebola-free. But a new cluster of cases popped up in June, killing two more people. That announcement was not received with universal acclaim, however, as residents argued that the country need to focus on prayer and continue to mourn the dead. If no new cases develop in the next few weeks, the country could be declared Ebola-free in mid-January.

“It’s the best year-end present that God could give to Guinea, and the best news that Guineans could hope for”, said Alama Kambou Dore, an Ebola survivor.

The virus killed over 2,500 people in Guinea alone since the outbreak began in 2014 and has left around 6,200 children orphaned.

As world health watchdogs struggled to respond, deaths mounted at a dizzying rate, igniting fears in Europe and elsewhere of a virus that transgressed borders and national controls.

Sierra Leone officially ended its epidemic in November.

The more than 17,000 survivors of Ebola face ongoing health issues as well as stigma in their communities, WHO said.

Guinea will now be entering a period of surveillance and will be carefully monitoring cases so that health officials and experts can identify and treat any signs of the virus immediately before it has the potential to spread to others.

The West African country is where Ebola emerged two years ago, later spreading to neighboring Liberia and Sierra Leone.

In March, a reinforcement team from MSF with viral haemorrhagic fever specialists arrived in Gueckedou and started an exploratory intervention, supporting the health ministry in collecting samples for analysis and setting up the first Ebola management centre (EMC) in the country.

They also had to persuade people to abandon funeral traditions whereby mourners touch the body of their loved one – a potent pathway to infection.