MONROVIA (Reuters) – The last four cases of Ebola in Liberia were discharged from a treatment clinic in the capital of Monrovia on Monday, meaning there were no more confirmed carriers of the deadly virus in the West African country.
The group of four, released from the ELWA treatment unit to cheers and applause, were part of new wave of Ebola infections in Margibi County just outside Monrovia discovered in late June.
Two other confirmed cases have since died, including the sister of one of the released patients.
“The (Ebola treatment unit) is not a death camp; you can come here and survive,” said Tolbert Nyenswah, head of Liberia’s Ebola response. “This is what we can demonstrate even if Ebola comes back.”
Medical officials shook the hands of the four survivors from Margibi County, a rural area outside Monrovia, and handed them food and supplies. The youngest, Moses Duo, is just nine years old. “Now that I have survived, I feel fine. I have no pain in my body again,” said Othello Miah, 19.
More than 11,200 people have died from Ebola since an epidemic broke out in December 2013 in neighboring Guinea.