The two-year Ebola epidemic which laid waste to communities across West Africa, killing more than 11,000 people, is due to be declared over on Thursday with Liberia expecting the all-clear.
The worst outbreak of the tropical pathogen in history has devastated health services and wrecked economies of the hardest hit nations since it emerged in southern Guinea in December 2013.
At its height, the epidemic cut a swathe through the capital cities of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, with bodies piling up as overwhelmed hospitals recorded hundreds of new cases a week.
World Health Organisation said Thursday’s announcement in Geneva will “mark 42 days since the last Ebola cases in Liberia were tested negative.” The announcement was previously scheduled for Friday, and no reason was given for the change.
Francis Karteh, Chief Medical Officer, LiberiaWe will remain careful and keep calling on the population to take the necessary measures in preventing reoccurrence.
Liberia which was hit the hardest in the outbreak, discharged its last two cases on 3 December. It was the last country affected by the outbreak infecting almost 29,000 people and claiming 11,315 lives, according to official data which most experts accept represents a significant underestimate.
Liberia was first declared free of human-to-human transmission in May, only to see the fever resurface six weeks later. It was officially credited with beating the epidemic for a second time in September before another small cluster of cases emerged.
The virus spread aggressively from “patient zero”, a Guinean infant who became the first victim, into Liberia and then Sierra Leone, quickly notching up more deaths than all other outbreaks combined.