Ebola down but not out

More than two years after the start of
the outbreak of Ebola in West Africa,
the epidemic is officially under control
– but the World Health Organisation
(WHO) has warned that there may
still be isolated cases and the threat of
a renewed outbreak remains.
The disease has killed an estimated
11 000 people, mainly in Sierra Leone,
Liberia and Guinea since the outbreak
in March 2014.
It disrupted logistics in the region,
with airlines cancelling scheduled
services and cross-border traffic
delayed by the screening of drivers.
A knock-on effect was Botswana
effectively sealing its borders in
August 2014, forcing truckers on the
Lubumbashi-Johannesburg corridor
to route through Zimbabwe.
It was only in mid-June – nearly
three years after the official outbreak
of the epidemic – that the WHO
declared Liberia had “reached the end
of active Ebola virus transmission.”
The declaration means it has been
42 days since the last confirmed
patient tested negative for a second
time for the disease.
Liberia first declared itself free
of the virus in May 2015 but Ebola
flared up again three times, most
recently when a woman contracted
it after travelling to neighbouring
Guinea and infecting her two
children, the WHO said.
The organisation declared
Sierra Leone free of the deadly
haemorrhagic fever on March 17 and
Guinea on June 1.