WHO declares Liberia Ebola-free

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The World Health Organization, WHO, on Saturday declared Liberia free of Ebola after no new cases were reported for 42 days, twice the virus' incubation period.
"Interruption of transmission is a monumental achievement for a country that reported the highest number of deaths in the largest, longest, and most complex outbreak since Ebola first emerged in 1976," WHO said in a statement reports dpa.
The last Ebola patient in Liberia died on March 27.
Some 11,020 people were killed in the outbreak, which started in Guinea in December 2013. More than 26,000 were infected, and new cases were registered for the first time in Europe and the US.
The disease has been concentrated in West Africa, particularly in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.
In Liberia, 4,716 people died from the virus and 10,564 people were infected. While the number of infections has been lower than in neighbouring Sierra Leone, Liberia has lost more patients to the disease.
Eighteen new cases were recorded in the week to May 3 in Guinea and Sierra Leone. WHO warned that Liberia remains vulnerable to the virus because of it porous borders.
Medecins Sans Frontiers (MSF), the humanitarian medical organization, warned that the outbreak will not be over until all of the hardest-hit countries can declare themselves virus-free.
"With new cases of Ebola still being recorded in neighbouring Guinea and Sierra Leone, the outbreak is not over yet," MSF said in a statement.
"For Liberia to record 42 days with zero cases of Ebola is a real milestone," MSF Liberia chief Mariateresa Cacciapuoti said in a statement. "But we can't take our foot off the gas until all three countries record 42 days with no cases."
The Ebola virus spreads through direct contact with the blood or other bodily fluids of an infected person. The fatality rate is estimated to be between 50 and 80 per cent.
Liberia's fragile health service struggled to contain the outbreak. Two hundred Liberian health workers died from the virus, MSF said.
Scientists and doctors are beginning to study the long-term effects of Ebola on the body, as survivors have reported muscle and joint pain as well as eyesight problems months after being declared cured.

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