WHO declares Liberia Ebola-free
World Health Organization (WHO), a U.N. health agency has declared Liberia Ebola-free.
WHO has hailed Liberia’s Ebola eradication efforts as an enormous development in the long crisis and monumental achievement as the virus has killed more than 4,716 people in the country alone.
Now, Liberia’s neighbous Guinea and Sierra Leone are only two countries fighting to stop Ebola outbreak since it began in December 2013.
Criteria for declaring a nation Ebola-free
WHO can declare a country Ebola free, if no new cases are reported over two incubation periods of virus i.e. 21 days.
In case of Liberia, no new cases of Ebola were reported in past 42 days i.e. twice the number of days the virus requires to incubate. The last confirmed death in Liberia was reported on 27 March 2015.
Impact of Ebola
The current outbreak is the deadliest in history. It was initially centred on Guinea’s remote south-eastern region of Nzerekore in early 2014 and later had spread to Liberia and Sierra Leone. Liberia was worst hit among the western African nations in this outbreak.
As per WHO, the number of deaths from the Ebola epidemic till date exceeds 11,000. In Sierra Leone 3,903 have died and 2,386 have died in Guinea.
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Month: Current Affairs - May, 2015