One small step for West Africa, one big step for Liberia in the fight against the Ebola virus. Reports have shown that in Liberia, the infection has narrowed down to two counties, out of fifteen.
Liberia has been one of west African countries highly hit by the Ebola virus. For the first time in months, Liberia might be yelling “Victory!” in the fight against the deadly virus. The Ebola outbreak could be close to ending in Liberia, as only two of the fifteen national counties have reported new infections with the deadly virus. The health minister aid, Tolbert Nyenswah, declared that the new cases of infection have been reported in the county of Montserrado, were the capital Monrovia is situated and in Grand Cape Mount, which is at the border with Sierra Leone.
In the regions of Nimba, Sinoe, Bong and Margibi of the country, haven’t been any reports of new cases since ending of December, said the health minister aide. The areas of Bong, Sinoe and Nimba have managed to go trough 21 days without any new infection reports, this period being the largest amount of time, the virus needs for incubation. Nyenswah believes that maintaining this type of evolution could put an end of the virus in the entire country.
The development of the situation, is conform with the goal set by Liberian officials, which was, of putting an end to new infections by December 31st.
The deadly virus struck to the core all Western Africa, with records proving what the massacre had left behind. The disease killed over 8,371 people and 21,171 people from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea were infected. 3,515 people, almost half of the number of the victims killed by Ebola were from Liberia, according to the World Health Organisation.
The United States Aid Agency, said that Liberia is on the right path to stopping the spread of the virus, but also, the presently most affected country, Sierra Leona, has shown great improvements in dealing with the disease. Still, Guinea remains under the scope of health teams as it’s the latest place where the virus has been reported, in March.
Even so, officials present a great deal of optimisms. The director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Tom Frieden, said that he has a lot of confidence in the capability of controlling the virus spread.
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