Last Ebola survivor leaves Sierra Leone hospital
Guinea only nation now with fatal fever
FREETOWN: Sierra Leone’s last known Ebola patient was released from hospital, raising hopes the West African nation may finally have beaten the devastating epidemic.
President Ernest Bai Koroma hailed “the beginning of the end of Ebola in Sierra Leone” as Adama Sankoh, 34, left a Makeni city hospital in a festive ceremony.
With no new cases reported in two weeks, Sierra Leone joins neighbouring Liberia in the countdown to being declared Ebola-free, with Guinea the only country where people are still falling sick with the deadly tropical fever. The World Health Organisation (WHO) says a country can be declared Ebola-free 42 days after the last confirmed case has tested negative twice for the virus. The release of the cured patient was celebrated by crowds dancing in the streets, beating drums, cars honking their horns and radio and television stations playing the national anthem.
Ms Sankoh said she would “from now on be the number one messenger to sensitise people that although Ebola is on the run, vigilance should be the watchword”. She appealed to “government not to forget all Ebola survivors as most of us are now very vulnerable [economically]”.
National Ebola Response Centre coordinator Steven Gaoja said the patient’s discharge from the hospital “represents a significant milestone in the fight against Ebola”. According to the health ministry, only 14 people are now in quarantine nationwide.
Since first emerging in December 2013, the worst Ebola outbreak in history infected nearly 28,000 people and left some 11,300 dead — mostly across Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea.
Ebola has brought the three nations to their knees, devastating their economies amid apocalyptic scenes of infectious bodies in the streets and entire villages quarantined.
The WHO has said the epidemic could end by December 2015, but warns against a “false sense of security” as even one undetected case could ignite a major flare-up.
Liberia was declared Ebola-free in May, but six new cases cropped up a month later, all of which have now been cleared. Guinea, the epicentre of the outbreak, struggles the most to control the epidemic, battling local suspicions the disease is a “white conspiracy”.
Survivors mourn entire communities wiped out, the deaths of 500 health workers and roughly 13,000 people struggling with long-term complications including severe joint pain and visual impairment.