By James Harding Giahyue
MONROVIA (Reuters) – Liberia’s last Ebola patient left hospital on Thursday to cheers of delight from friends and family, a year after the West African country reported its first case.
The capital Monrovia was once at the heart of an epidemic that has killed nearly 10,000 across West Africa. Liberia has reported no new Ebola cases in 13 days, but can be deemed Ebola-free only after 42 days have passed – a timeframe representing double the normal incubation period for the virus.
Dressed in a bright orange T-shirt and multi-colored beads, a joyous Beatrice Yardolo greeted a small crowd outside the Chinese Ebola treatment center in the Paynesville suburb of Monrovia where she was hospitalized for two weeks.
Chinese healthcare workers took turns to congratulate her, offering a bouquet of red flowers and a survivor’s certificate, as soldiers from the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) looked on.
“I am very grateful to the Chinese treatment center and the Almighty God that I lived to see this day. I did not know I would make it,†said Yadrolo, who comes from the St. Paul’s Bridge suburb.
NEED FOR VIGILANCE
Yadrolo has lost three children to the hemorrhagic fever. Ebola spreads through bodily fluids like saliva and vomit and her family is thought to have been infected by her son who caught it while working as a dental hygienist.
“It makes me feel happy. It makes me feel like our country is coming to the end of a very horrible period,†said her son Joel Yadrolo.
“Today signifies a very great day for our country. When the news was bad, we reported the bad news. We stand here today to signify good news,†said Tolbert Nyenswah, head of Liberia’s Ebola response.
However, Nyenswah called on Liberians to continue observing strict measures imposed to eradicate the disease, adding there were still more than 100 Ebola contacts under surveillance.
Since the epidemic was first discovered a year ago, the rate of infection has sometimes ebbed only to flare back up again more fiercely.
Neighboring Sierra Leone appeared to be controlling the outbreak in its capital Freetown and then fishermen carried the virus back, causing a spike in cases.
The World Health Organization said Guinea and Sierra Leone reported 132 new confirmed cases of Ebola in the week to March 1, an increase of 34 over the previous week.
(Writing by Emma Farge; editing by Ralph Boulton)
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- Disease Medical Conditions
- Liberia