To quote the Vice President, this is a Big F'n Deal:
The last Ebola patient in Liberia was released from a hospital Thursday, according to media reports.
Beatrice Yardolo, 58, was discharged from the Chinese-run treatment center in the Paynesville district of the capital Monrovia, the Associated Press reported.
Yardolo, an English teacher who was admitted on Feb. 18, told the agency she was "one of the happiest persons on earth today."
Source: USA Today
It wasn't long ago, in fact, that Liberia was the poster child for Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) spiraling out of control, with
armed gangs raiding Ebola clinics and the military
enforcing quarantines in the slums. In six months, Liberia, with a
lot of help from the rest of the world, has turned the situation around. The EVD plague is, as far as anyone can tell, contained. And as long as there isn't another patient out there in a remote area, waiting to infect someone else, we can hope that Liberia will be declared Ebola-free in 42 days.
More under the squiggle.
As usual, the best place to get the latest good information on the Ebola epidemic in West Africa is the World Health Organization Situation Reports. Here's some highlights from the latest report, from March 4th:
- A total of 132 new confirmed cases of Ebola virus disease (EVD) were reported in the week to 1 March, an increase on the previous week (99 new cases). Liberia has reported zero new cases for the first time since May of last year, while both Guinea and Sierra Leone reported more new cases this week (51, 81) than last week.
- Overall, this outbreak totals 23,969 cases, including both cases that have finished (either cured or dead) and cases that are still active. 9,807 have died.
- Many of these cases are due to an outbreak in a fishing community in Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone.
- There were 16 reports of unsafe burial practices of Ebola patients, which probably means more cases later.
- Community outreach in Guinea and Sierra Leone remains challenging. As a consequence, many EVD cases aren't known until after post-mortem testing. By the way, an implication of this is that there are many more cases of EVD, and many more deaths due to EVD, than are likely to be known by health officials. In other words, the plague is NOT under control in either country.
So the news continues to be grim. Unfortunately, this means that it's rather likely that Ebola will spread out of control again when the weather gets warmer, and may once again spread to Europe, the United States, or another part of the world, uncontrolled. Consider this your reminder that Ebola did not "just go away."