World Health Organization to declare Liberia Ebola

The tests reinforce concerns about flare-ups of the virus that has killed more than 11,300 people since 2013 in the world’s deadliest outbreak of Ebola.

The World Health Organization (WHO) announced Thursday that the Ebola epidemic that has ravaged west Africa for two years was over after Liberia, the last affected country, received the all-clear.

“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.

Liberia was first declared free of Ebola transmission in May 2015, but the virus reappeared twice since then, with the latest flare-up in November.

Bruce Aylward, MD, MPH, the WHO’s assistant director-general in charge of Ebola outbreak response, said the risk of flare-ups is diminishing as the virus gradually fades from the survivor population.

The country was the first of the three to be declared free of human-to-human Ebola transmission in May, only to see the virus resurface six weeks later.

However, the BBC reports that two tests conducted on a person who died in the north of the country had proved positive for the virus.

“As long as there is infectious virus that continues to hide out… that is a potential for a reignition of this outbreak, especially if we relax infection control and prevention”. Single cases were discovered in the US and Nigeria, leading to global concerns that the outbreak could spread beyond West Africa.

“Today’s World Health Organization announcement is welcome news but we must learn from Ebola’s devastating impact and ensure we are better prepared for infectious disease outbreaks”, said Dr Seth Berkley, head of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, an organisation that aims to increase access to vaccines in poor countries.

He reminded Liberians that the Ebola virus may persist in some of the bodily fluids of a small number of recovered individuals for prolonged periods, “and this virus may be transmitted through very intimate contact, including through unprotected sex”. It devastated families, communities and the economic systems of all three countries.

Margaret Chan, said the outbreak, which had worldwide dimensions, had a crushing impact on health care management, national economies and global travel. “The needs of patients and affected communities must remain at the heart of any response and outweigh political interests”.