Search Here

World Health Organization has finally declared Sierra Leone as Ebola free country. This announcement made the country break into celebration with a hint of sadness as 4000 lives were claimed by the deadly virus before it was fought with brave efforts. On Friday night, Freetown became a land of huge carnival as the crowds broke into streets of the capital, overwhelmed with emotion. The citizens of Sierra Leone breathed a sigh of relief after a 17-month epidemic outburst that could be seen in endless prayers and parties that followed. Andrew Nordstrom, country director of WHO, confirmed that it has been 42 days since even a single case of Ebola has been reported. This news meets the basic criteria that the virus is not being transmitted anymore, reports the Guardian.

Even after the great news of beating Ebola, the health battle in Sierra Leone is far from over. Much before the outbreak of Ebola, this country was considered one of the most dangerous places for a woman to give birth in. As per the statistics, one in every 21 women lost a child to infection within the first month of its life. The similar risk in a country like UK is 1 in every 7,518 women. With the epidemic, the statistics started to look worse as mothers-to-be avoided going to the hospitals at all for the fear of catching the virus from the infected people. Health care system was paralyzed due to Ebola and the mothers were afraid of the hospitals, says Al Jazeera.

It is the ever present health risks that make this historic moment bittersweet. The president of Sierra Leone, Ernest Bai Koroma, will address the crowd later today. While happy to have achieved an important milestone, they blame WHO for not declaring Sierra Leone in a state of emergency well within in time. They should have restricted the movement during the outbreak to limit the number of causalities, reports BBC.