Nigeria declared Ebola-free as dozens cleared from U.S. watch lists

Nigeria was declared free of the deadly Ebola virus on Monday after a determined doctor and thousands of officials and volunteers helped end an outbreak still ravaging other parts of West Africa and threatening the United States and Spain. Caught unawares when a diplomat arrived with the disease from Liberia, authorities were alerted by Dr. Ameyo Adadevoh, who diagnosed it, and kept the diplomat in a hospital despite protests from him and his government. Adadevoh later died from Ebola herself. They then set about trying to contain the disease in an overcrowded city of 21 million where it could easily have turned into a doomsday scenario if about 300 people who had been in direct or indirect contact with the diplomat had not been traced and isolated.

It shows that Ebola can be contained, but we must be clear that we have only won a battle, the war will only end when West Africa is also declared free of Ebola.

Rui Gama Vaz, World Health Organization

In the United States, weeks of worry about Ebola infection ended on Monday for several dozen people who came off watch lists, but more than 260 others were still being monitored for symptoms as the U.S. government ramped up its response to the virus. This year’s outbreak of the highly infectious hemorrhagic fever thought to have originated in forest bats is the worst on record. The virus has killed 4,546 people across the three most-affected countries, Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone, and travelers from the region have infected two people in Texas and one in Madrid.

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