Guinea's fight against Ebola is getting a new ray of hope after its last known patient has been released from the hospital on Saturday, Nov 28.
The baby, Nubia, was born Ebola positive. Her mother eventually died during childbirth due to significant blood loss. Being cared for by Doctors without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres), she had more than 15 staff members, including doctors, closely monitoring her progress such as her heart rate and breathing. Further, according to a report by Reuters, the baby also received experimental anti-viral drugs such as ZMapp, which has also been used on other survivors including US Dr. Kent Bently, and GS-5734 by Gilead Sciences.
Nubia is currently the first baby born from an infected mother to have survived the disease. Although she was already negative of the virus a week before, the team decided to extend her stay for a few more days.
Her release from the hospital is especially significant for Guinea, one of the West African nations to have suffered the devastating impact of Ebola, which began more than a year ago. Even if it has come close to being declared Ebola free, it has never achieved such status unlike Sierra Leone and Liberia.
Now that the baby is out, they can already begin their countdown to being officially declared Ebola free. To achieve that, Guinea should not have any reported case within the next 42 days after which it remains on heightened alert and close surveillance in 90 days.
Being declared Ebola free, however, isn't a guarantee that the virus won't come back. This month alone, there are new cases in Liberia, which has already been given an Ebola-free status by the World Health Organization (WHO) twice. At least one patient has already been dead. Overall, more than 10,000 people have already died from the virus in this latest outbreak.