Liberia declared Ebola-free, ending West African outbreak

Source: BBC

Liberia has been declared Ebola-free by the World Health Organization (WHO), effectively putting an end to the world's worst outbreak of the disease.

The "end of active transmission" was declared, after 42 days without a new case in Liberia.
It joins Guinea and Sierra Leone, which earned the status last year.
However, UN chief Ban Ki-moon has warned that West Africa may see flare-ups of the virus. It has killed more than 11,000 people since December 2013.


A country is considered free of human-to-human transmission once two 21-day incubation periods have passed since the last known case tested negative for a second time.
However, the end of active transmission of Ebola has been declared twice before in Liberia - only for the infection to re-emerge.
This is why the declaration will be marked with caution, says BBC Africa's health correspondent Anne Soy.
On Wednesday, Mr Ban warned that "we can anticipate future flare-ups of Ebola in the coming year".
"But we also expect the potential and frequency of those flare-ups to decrease over time," he added.