Guinea declared free of Ebola virus that killed over 2,500

Guinea was declared free of Ebola transmission on Tuesday after more than 2,500 people died from the virus in the West African nation, leaving Liberia as the only country still counting down the days until the end of the epidemic.

The announcement made at a ceremony in the capital comes 42 days after the last Ebola patient tested negative for a second time. The country now enters a 90-day period of heightened surveillance, the UN World Health Organization said.

The world’s worst Ebola outbreak began in Gueckedou, eastern Guinea, in December 2013 before spreading to Liberia, Sierra Leone and seven other countries. In all, more than 11,300 people died, almost all in the three worst-affected nations.

Despite Tuesday’s milestone, people in the capital, Conakry, greeted the declaration with mixed emotions, given the deaths and the damage the virus did to the economy and the country’s health and education sectors.

About 6,200 children have been left orphaned, said Rene Migliani, from Guinea’s Ebola coordination centre.

Ebola has orphaned about 6,200 children in Guinea, said Rene Migliani, an official at the national coordination centre for the fight against Ebola.

There were more than 3,800 cases in Guinea out of more than 28,600 cases globally, according to WHO. Almost all the cases and deaths were in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, which officially ended its epidemic in November.

Liberia has lost more than 4,800 people but could be declared virus-free on 14 January. The country was declared Ebola free in May and September, but each time new cases emerged.