Liberia Discharges Its Last Four Ebola Patients, No New Ebola Cases in the Country

Ebola has infected 27,700 people and killed almost 11,300 across Liberia and its neighbors Guinea and Sierra Leone. Liberia was declared free of transmission on May 9, 2015, six weeks after the funeral of its last case. However, a 17-year-old died in the coastal county of Margibi at the end of June, 2015, after passing the virus on to five others, one of whom died. In the latest updates, Liberia discharged its last four Ebola patients on Monday, leaving the west African nation with no known cases of the deadly tropical fever.

The two men and two boys, part of a cluster of six new confirmed cases, were released from the ELWA II clinic in Monrovia after making a full recovery. Deputy health minister Tolbert Nyensuah said, "This is a clear indication that we are capable of facing the outbreak whenever there is one. Our doctors were able to stop the virus from killing these people. Today they are free and will be given the certificate (of recovery)."

Othelo Miah, 19, said that he was among a group of villagers who had eaten cooked dog flesh with the 17-year-old, originally and incorrectly attributed as a possible source of the new outbreak. He said, "I got sick after eating dog meat. My body was painful, every part of it. They brought me here and today I am happy that I am free from Ebola."

ELWA 2 said, "Four people who were thought to have had contact with the patients had also been released, having escaped infection, while six remained under observation."

Source: AFP