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Liberia releases last Ebola patient, no new infections detected

By Andrew V. Pestano
Map of Liberia, one of the countries worst-affected by the outbreak of the Ebola virus last year. Graphic Courtesy Google.
Map of Liberia, one of the countries worst-affected by the outbreak of the Ebola virus last year. Graphic Courtesy Google.

MONROVIA, Liberia, March 5 (UPI) -- Liberia has released its last Ebola patient, Beatrice Yardolo, 58, from a treatment center, making the country free of the virus if no new infections are detected.

Yardolo, an English teacher, said she was "one of the happiest persons on Earth" on her way home after her release from a Chinese-run treatment center in Liberia's capital of Monrovia. She underwent treatment for two weeks.

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The country has to go through 42 days without any new cases to be declared Ebola-free.

Guinea and Sierra Leone are still battling the virus, where 132 new cases were confirmed in the week leading to March 1, according to the World Health Organization.

The virus could return to Liberia unless it is eradicated in all affected countries.

"While it's good news that Liberia itself has no new cases, the populations are so mobile in that region that there could easily be re-importations of cases," WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl said. "We have to get down to zero in all three countries before we can consider this thing beaten."

An experimental Ebola vaccine will begin its final stages of testing on March 7, according to the WHO.

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"It will be the first preventive tool against Ebola in history" if the vaccine is effective, WHO Director-General Margaret Chan said.

More than 9,300 people died from Ebola in West Africa, about 4,000 died in Liberia alone. Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, the countries affected the worst by the Ebola outbreak, have pledged to prevent all Ebola infections by around April.

Recently, Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf announced that Liberia was reopening its land borders and lifting a nationwide curfew due to a slowdown of the virus.

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