The long-awaited announcement came from the United Nations Officials and the World Health Organization, Liberia is now Ebola free. After more than a year of struggling with the potentially-deadly virus that has swept 4,769 lives in Liberia alone, the virus has finally came to a halt. The country was announced Ebola free on Saturday making it the first of the three worst ravaged West African countries to declare an end to the epidemic.
"The outbreak of Ebola virus disease in Liberia is over," the UN health agency said in a statement read by Dr. Alex Ntale Gasasira, its representative to Liberia, at the emergency command center in Monrovia, capital of Liberia.
Boston Globe reports that Luke Bawo, an epidemiologist, showed a map of Liberia with the color green showing that there are no cases in the past 42 days. This indicate that two maximum incubation periods of the virus, a total of 42 days, had passed since the burial of the last person infected with the Ebola virus.
Meanwhile, Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who visited the country in August told CNN, "We went through just a horrific epidemic. It's a searing memory that many of us will carry with us for the rest of our lives."
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that the death toll since December reached 11,064 and the cases has totaled to 26,722.
During the peak of the outbreak, patients were not only the ones vulnerable to the virus but also, the health care practitioners tending to these patients. Many of the health care force fell victim to the deadly virus.
As Liberians are struggling to restore their normal lives, they are hoping that their economy can surpass the challenges and get back in action. However, the WHO is recommending the country to add three months of surveillance to make sure the virus will not come back.
