Ebola in Sierra Leone: after 4,000 deaths, outbreak all but over

THE GUARDIAN   by Sarah Bosley                              Aug. 20, 2015
FREETOWN--The long-running Ebola epidemic in Sierra Leoneis all but over after nearly 13,500 cases and almost 4,000 deaths, those fighting the disease believe.

             People celebrate being released from Ebola quarantine on 14 August 2015. Photograph: Sunday Alamba/AP

The last case in Sierra Leone was an eight-month-old child, who was hospitalised nearly two weeks ago and died four days later.

None of the 29 people who had contact with the child and were moved from the densely packed Freetown slum of Magazine Wharf to a voluntary quarantine facility have so far shown signs of illness.

“We will wait to see if any of those high-risk people develop [Ebola] but if not, and even if they do, we have them safely out of the community. Our hope is that that is the last bit of this outbreak,” said Marshall Elliott, director of the UK government’s interagency taskforce, which is running the response with the Sierra Leone government and army.

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http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/aug/20/ebola-epidemic-in-sierra-leone-may-be-over-say-health-workers