Liberia celebrates the end of Ebola,
but people are still on guard
By Los Angeles Times, adapted by Newsela staff on 05.14.15
Word Count 685
A woman holds a placard as she and others celebrate Liberia being declared free of Ebola in Monrovia,
Liberia, May 11, 2015. Photo: AP Photo/ Abbas Dulleh
JOHANNESBURG — Liberia declared it was now free of Ebola, one year after
the disease began spreading across West Africa.
During the world’s worst outbreak, more people died of Ebola in Liberia than any
other nation.
The World Health Organization (WHO) warned that neighboring countries in
West Africa still struggle with the deadly disease. The risk remains high that
infected people could cross into Liberia and spread Ebola all over again.
The Disease Spread Quickly
Ebola was ﬁrst discovered in 1976. It is an extremely dangerous and contagious
disease. The most recent outbreak began in Guinea in December 2013. Ebola
then spread to nearby Sierra Leone and across the border into Liberia.
The ﬁrst case in Liberia was reported in late March 2014. At ﬁrst, the outbreak
was small. But by June, Ebola had hit the capital, Monrovia. It marked the ﬁrst
time Ebola had ever spread to a big city with people living close together.
Thousands died. When the outbreak was at its worst in August and September,
the country counted 300 to 400 more Ebola patients every week. For a while,
health experts feared that the disease would spin out of control and become a
horrible new part of everyday life in Liberia. In October, the number of infections
ﬁnally began to drop. The last victim was buried on March 28, 2015.
Many Thousands Died
More than 11,000 in Africa are believed to have died from Ebola. More than
4,700, or over one-third, of those people were in Liberia.
In Guinea, Ebola killed 2,387 people. Sierra Leone recorded more than 3,900
deaths, according to numbers from the WHO.
One reason why the virus spread so rapidly was the large number of people
crossing the borders. Also, in West Africa, it is the custom for friends and family
members to touch the body before a person is buried. People traveled across
borders to attend funerals and returned home with the illness, infecting other
family members and neighbors.
Many of those who died were health workers, community nurses and healers
who treated people without protection. In Liberia, 375 health workers came
down with Ebola and 189 died. More than 860 health workers were infected in
North Africa and more than 500 died.
Treatment Did Not Always Come On Time
After someone has been exposed to the virus, it can take up to 21 days to
develop symptoms. A country can be declared free of Ebola only after 42 days
have passed.
Patients often thought they had other illnesses, such as typhoid or malaria.
Many of them tragically delayed seeking treatment, infecting others.
Treatment centers were swamped with cases, and patients often died at the
gates. Often, there was no room inside the overcrowded centers to treat them
safely.
Taxis bringing sick passengers for treatment may also have spread the disease.
Entire families were killed. Sometimes children lost both of their parents to
Ebola.
To help stop the spread of the virus, schools were closed and public gatherings
were banned. Ambulances had a hard time reaching patients.
In September, the world was not yet responding to the spreading disease fast
enough.
At one point, there were almost no hospital beds for Ebola patients available in
Liberia, the WHO said.
Volunteers Made A Difference
Ending Ebola in Liberia was a huge achievement, the WHO said. Liberia's
"determination to defeat Ebola never wavered, courage never faltered." Doctors
and nurses continued to treat patients even when there were not enough gowns
and masks to protect them from the disease.
The WHO also gave credit to local volunteers, who worked in treatment centers,
on burial teams or as ambulance drivers. They "were driven by a sense of
community responsibility and patriotic duty to end Ebola." The WHO said they
brought hope back to people.
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is the president of Liberia. She said that it will take a
generation for the pain and grief to heal.
A U.S. government statement said the world must not let Ebola return to Liberia.
“We must not let down our guard until the entire region reaches and stays at
zero Ebola cases,” it said.