Guinea has been declared free of Ebola, leaving Liberia as the only country still awaiting an official end to the epidemic.

People in the capital, Conakry, greeted the declaration by authorities and the World Health Organisation with mixed emotions: more than 2,500 people died from the virus, which damaged the country’s economy, and health and education sectors.

“Several of my family are dead. This situation has shown us how much we must fight for those who are survivors,” Fanta Oulen Camara, who works for Médecins Sans Frontières, told Reuters.

“After I got better, the hardest thing was to make people welcome me. Most people that normally supported me abandoned me. Even the school where I was an instructor dropped me. It was very hard,” said Camara, 26, who became ill in March 2014.

Ebola has created about 6,200 orphans in Guinea, said Rene Migliani, an official at the national coordination centre for the fight against Ebola. The country had more than 3,800 cases, out of more than 28,600 cases globally with 11,300 deaths, according to WHO figures.

A country is declared Ebola-free 42 days after the recovery or death of the final patient and if there are no new infections.

Guinea was the host country for “patient zero” – two-year-old Emile Ouamouno, who in December 2013 became the first person to die in the outbreak. The last known case in the country is a baby called Nubia, who was born with the disease but whose recovery was confirmed on 16 November.

“It’s the best year-end present that God could give to Guinea, and the best news that Guineans could hope for,” said Alama Kambou Dore, an Ebola survivor. “From 2013 to 2015, Guineans suffered, they lived and survived, they endured, they were stigmatised, rejected, even humiliated because of this disease, which leapt out of nowhere.”

Liberia has lost more than 4,800 people to the disease, but released its last two known cases from hospital on 3 December. It will be declared virus-free in January if no new cases emerge. The country was declared Ebola-free in May and September, but was hit by new outbreaks.

Sierra Leone officially ended its epidemic in November.