Liberia Discharges Last Known Ebola Patients

On 4 May, the ministry of health reported that Liberia’s last two known Ebola patients have been discharged from hospital after recovering from the deadly disease.

According to the ministry’s press spokesman, Sorbor George, the two were discharged from the Ebola Treatment Unit in the capital city Monrovia on Friday. He disclosed that “the two have been responding to the treatment and recovered from the virus last week. But thorough check-ups had to be done, and fortunately all proved them free of the virus,” adding, “this means that Liberia is again going through” the countdown “to be declared free of Ebola.”

The deadliest period in the history of the feared tropical virus wrecked the economies and health systems of the worst-hit West African nations – Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone – after it emerged in December 2013. Liberia was the country that was the worst-hit by the outbreak, which has claimed 11,300 lives. The World Health Organization (WHO) has disclosed that Ebola no longer constitutes an international emergency, however the announcement of new cases in West Africa in the past few months demonstrates the difficult of managing its aftermath.