The World Health Organization has declared Liberia free of Ebola transmission. Forty-two days have now passed since the last laboratory case was buried, meaning that transmission has been interrupted. In Sierra Leone and Guinea, massive progress has also been made with cases reported per week dropping into the single digits.
Liberia was the worst hit country during last year’s ebola crisis, with as many as 300 to 400 deaths being reported per week last August and September. For a country that is home to only 4 million people, such a high death toll is staggering.
A total of 11,005 people have died so far during outbreak, beginning in December, 2013.
The case fatility rate (CFR) was reported to be 40 percent. Ebola’s CFR has generally hovered around 50 percent in past outbreaks, but has been as low at 25 percent in some situations, and as high as 90 percent in more extreme situations.
As the gravity of the situation grew global health officials were forced to respond with a massive influx of resources and medical professionals.
As recently as this past December the WHO was warning the global community that there was “no room for optimism”.
Since the start of the new year, however, health experts have been growing more optimistic, and officials began to believe that the situation was being brought under control.
As the summer months now approach the WHO and other health organizations appear to be turning a corner.
With the transmission cycle broken in Liberia, international medical personnel can now begin focusing on bringing the outbreak under control in Sierra Leone and Guinea.
It should be cautioned that diseases can evolve extremely quickly, as can conditions on the ground.
Outbreak under control but not eliminated
The outbreak has largely been brought under control in West Africa, but has not been eliminated. With Ebola almost certainly lurking in the African jungles, the disease is also far from being eliminated. Still, there are reasons to hope that the current outbreak can be resolved.
After the disease ravaged Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Liberia, neighboring countries quickly instituted travel restrictions and tighter border controls, helping to contain the spread. Outside of the those three countries, Ebola outbreaks have been rare and far between.
Meanwhile, the United Nations and World Health Organization, which was initially slow to react to the outbreak, began to pour in huge amounts of resources. This has helped Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Liberia bring the outbreaks under control.
Now Sierra Leone is reporting only 3 new cases per day, while Guinea has seen cases drop to as low as 9 per week.
Health officials caution, however, that if vigilance wanes the outbreak could pick up again.
