Sierra Leone has officially been declared free of Ebola by the
World Health Organization (WHO). Thousands of people
took to the streets of the capital, Freetown, at the stroke of
midnight – marking 42 days without a single declared case
of the disease. There were further cheers when the WHO
local representative made the official announcement later on
Saturday.
The
outbreak killed almost 4,000 people in Sierra Leone over the
past 18 months.
Many gathered around a giant cotton tree in the centre of
the city. Some lit candles in memory of the victims, while
others danced with joy. Dr Oliver Johnson, from the King’s
Sierra Leone partnership, worked at an Ebola clinic in
Freetown, and has strong links with medical professionals
there.
“[For] everyone I’ve spoken to, there’s a sense of relief that
this might finally be over and maybe a bit of disbelief that
after so many false starts, or false ends, we might finally be
there,” he told the BBC. A country is considered free of
human-to-human transmission once two 21-day incubation
periods have passed since the last known case tested
negative for a second time.
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