Cheers erupted and people danced in the streets on Saturday as Sierra Leone marked the end of the Ebola outbreak within its borders, although neighboring Guinea still struggles to stamp out the deadly virus that has killed more than 11,000 people, mostly in West Africa.
Nearly 4,000 people have died in Sierra Leone of Ebola since the outbreak began in late 2013. The WHO said 42 days have passed since the country’s last confirmed Ebola patient was discharged on Sept. 25 after two consecutive negative test results.
“WHO commends the government and people of Sierra Leone for the significant achievement of ending this Ebola outbreak,” Sierra Leone’s WHO representative Anders Nordstrom said.
A country must go 42 days without a case in order for WHO to declare it free of Ebola transmission.
“We have prevailed over an evil virus. We persevered and we have overcome. We must not let down our guard,” Sierra Leonean President Ernest Bai Koroma said.
Dead bodies continue to be swabbed and safe burials continue for all suspicious cases, he said, adding that they are to retain adequate laboratory capacity for tests.
Juliet Spencer, a 31-year-old Ebola survivor, acknowledged the news with a heavy heart. She contracted the disease while taking care of her husband who died in December.
“I feel good today that I have survived to see this day, witnessing this ceremony,” she said.
Madingo Central Mosque chief Imam, Sheikh Fomba Swarray, said that he was cautiously optimistic.
“As long as a similar declaration has not been made in Guinea, I will always feel we are being hunted by the Ebola disease,” he said.
Guinea, where the epidemic began, now remains the only nation struggling to rid itself of the disease. WHO has recorded seven new cases in neighboring Guinea in the past 21 days.
Guinea’s Ebola task force spokesman Fode Tass Sylla said that Guineans have abandoned preventative measures in the past three months.
“They shake hands, they don’t wash their hands. And in some cases people have deserted sanitary health services to see traditional healers,” he said.
A woman left Conakry for Forecariah to see a traditional healer in September, infecting others, Sylla said.
She and the healer died and Sylla said six cases now remain there.
An awareness campaign is to resume, and villages where the virus persists must be isolated, he said.
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