Liberia this week March achieved significant and critical milestone in its Ebola story; it discharged its last patient and started the 42 day countdown to being declared Ebola free as long as no new cases are reported during the period.
To mark this exciting update, the Liberian government has dismantled a crematorium and removed drums containing the ashes of more than 3,000 Ebola victims cremated during the height of the epidemic.
Liberia resorted to cremating the bodies of Ebola victims when communities rejected burials in their areas for fear of a further spread of the disease and a contamination of their soil. The cremations were very controversial at first because they were against traditional burial practices; but the government insisted on this safer route as a way of stemming the spread.
The milestone may only signal a temporary reprieve, albeit a significant one. With two neighboring countries, Guinea and Sierra Leone, still struggling to contain the disease, there is the possibility that the disease could penetrate the country again.
“It was touching, it was pleasing. There was a lot of excitement because we feel that this is a victory. But it’s not over yet. We are still cautioning people. We told them they must still protect their villages, their towns. They should report any suspicion of Ebola to the health teams. We still have a response that is tight. Yeah, we made that point,” said Tolbert Nyenswah, the Deputy Health Minister in charge of Liberia’s fight against Ebola, in a telephone interview.
“The authorities are still tracking more than 100 people for possible exposure to the virus. As of Thursday, no new cases of Ebola had been confirmed inside Liberia for the past 13 days,” he added.
Liberia’s final Ebola patient, Beatrice Yardolo, a 58-year-old teacher who lost 3 of her 5 children to the disease, was discharged last week. Upon leaving the treatment center, she was quoted by Reuters as saying; “I am very grateful to the Chinese treatment center and the Almighty God that I lived to see this day. I did not know I would make it.
Indeed, Liberia has been the hardest hit of all countries with Ebola as it experienced the highest number of deaths during the epidemic. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), about 4,117 victims were recorded in Liberia alone, while more than 9,800 people have died in total.
The situation in Guinea and Sierra Leone is quite grim as the WHO’s latest report suggests that new cases had spiked, from 99 to 132, in both countries as of two weeks ago.
By Emmanuel Iruobe
