WHO to announce Liberia is free of Ebola, bringing two-year epidemic that infected almost 29,000 across west Africa to an end

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

The two-year Ebola epidemic that killed more than 11,000 people in west Africa is due to be declared officially over on Thursday, with Liberia expecting the all-clear.

The worst outbreak of the deadly tropical pathogen in history devastated health services and wrecked the economies of the hardest-hit nations since it emerged in southern Guinea in December 2013.

At its height the virus cut a swath through the capital cities of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, with bodies piling up in the streets and overwhelmed hospitals recording hundreds of new cases a week.

The 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 had previously been scheduled for Friday, with no reason given for the change.

“We will remain careful and keep calling on the population to take the necessary measures in preventing reoccurrence,” said Francis Karteh, Liberia’s chief medical officer, a major figure in the battle against the epidemic.

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Liberia, which was hardest hit by the disease with 4,800 deaths, discharged its last two cases – the father and younger brother of a 15-year-old victim – on 3 December.

It was the last country still to be affected by an outbreak infecting almost 29,000 people and claiming 11,315 lives, according to official data - which most experts accept represents a significant underestimate.

The patients’ recovery triggered a 42-day countdown – twice the incubation period of the virus – before Liberia could be declared free of transmission for a third time.

Ebola can kill its victims within days, causing severe fever and muscle pain, weakness, vomiting and diarrhoea. In many cases it shuts down organs and causes unstoppable bleeding.

The virus is spread through close contact with the sweat, vomit, blood, or other bodily fluids of an infected person, or the recently deceased.

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.



Facebook Twitter Pinterest Crowds cheer during the “Bye bye, Au revoir Ebola” (Bye bye, Goodbye Ebola) concert in December, celebrating the end of the disease in Guinea Photograph: Cellou Binani/AFP/Getty Images

The virus spread aggressively from its “patient zero”, a Guinean infant who was the first victim, into Liberia and then Sierra Leone, quickly causing more deaths than all other outbreaks combined.

Sporadic cases were also registered in Mali, Nigeria and Senegal as deaths mounted at a dizzying rate, igniting fears in Europe and elsewhere of a virus that transgressed borders and national controls.

The epidemic devastated the economies of the worst-hit countries, as crops rotted in the fields, mines were abandoned and goods could not get to market.

Strong recent growth has been curtailed in Guinea, and while Liberia has resumed growth, Sierra Leone is in a severe recession according to the World Bank, which has mobilised $1.62bn (£1.12bn) for Ebola response and recovery efforts.