The outbreak has so far killed more than 11,000 people in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).
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“This is the first time that a complete epidemiological week has elapsed with zero confirmed cases since March 2014”, the World Health Organization said in its weekly situation report published on Wednesday. The nation released its last known Ebola patient on September 28 and must wait another 42 days until it can be declared free of the disease. “Over the same period, transmission of the virus has been geographically confined to several small areas in western Guinea and Sierra Leone, marking a transition to a distinct, third phase of the epidemic”.
A study by the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine finds that pregnant women in Sierra Leone are increasingly opting to give birth at home, citing fears that any contact with a hospital will result in them or their baby contracting Ebola.
Liberia has already been declared free of the disease after 42 days without a new case.
Medical personnel remove the corpse of an Ebola victim from a house in Monrovia, Liberia, on September 29, 2014. Sierra Leone has reported no confirmed cases for three consecutive weeks. Among those infected, a total of 11,297 people have died. When an individual tests positive for Ebola, teams of local and worldwide health workers are deployed to identify anyone who may have come interacted with the person after the onset of Ebola symptoms.
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Officials, however, still haven’t been able to trace two high-risk contacts, one each from Bombali and Kambia district.
