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Medicine

WHO Declares Liberian Ebola Outbreak Over 39

The Washington Post reports that after 42 days with no new cases of Ebola infection in Liberia, the World Health Organization has declared over the outbreak which killed more than 4,000 people in that country; 42 days means twice the known maximum incubation period for the disease, though scientists' understanding of the virus's persistence continues to evolve. From the WHO's statement: Health officials have maintained a high level of vigilance for new cases. During April, the country’s 5 dedicated Ebola laboratories tested around 300 samples every week. All test results were negative.

While WHO is confident that Liberia has interrupted transmission, outbreaks persist in neighbouring Guinea and Sierra Leone, creating a high risk that infected people may cross into Liberia over the region’s exceptionally porous borders.
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WHO Declares Liberian Ebola Outbreak Over

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  • by Fwipp ( 1473271 ) on Saturday May 09, 2015 @05:12PM (#49655149)

    That's really great news for Liberia. Thanks are due to all of the brave Liberians who worked tirelessly to control and treat this outbreak.

    • That's really great news for Liberia. Thanks are due to all of the brave Liberians who worked tirelessly to control and treat this outbreak.

      Yeah...but I"m curious...

      Why did Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend break this news......?

      • by plover ( 150551 )

        That's really great news for Liberia. Thanks are due to all of the brave Liberians who worked tirelessly to control and treat this outbreak.

        Yeah...but I"m curious...

        Why did Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend break this news......?

        Because Keith Moon is dead.

    • Liberians stepped up, but don't leave out other medical professionals from all over the world who also contributed.
      • by Mal-2 ( 675116 )

        Of course, but letting the doctors from outside do their work uninhibited IS to their credit. The same cannot be said of all such operations in the region.

        This may have something to do with the fact that Liberia itself has an internal image that it is a modern nation with a money problem, rather than a "developing nation".

  • by Culture20 ( 968837 ) on Saturday May 09, 2015 @05:19PM (#49655185)
    The end of the Ebola Outbreak is in the eye of the beholder.
  • Of all the doctors and nurses who treated the ebola patients?
    • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Its okay, the disease can't be transmitted as long as we avoid direct eye contact.

  • by crow ( 16139 ) on Saturday May 09, 2015 @05:43PM (#49655259) Homepage Journal

    According to the USA media, this hasn't been an issue since November 4th. Up until then, it was a huge panic that was an imminent threat the the United States. Then the threat passed, and we went back to ignoring it with the rest of Africa.

    • by Kaenneth ( 82978 )

      As the republicans call it, "The second most dangerous thing to America that came from Africa."

    • Well yeah.

      Ebola was previously a disease that occoured in small outbreaks. Afaict prior to the current outbreak there were less than 2000 known cases in total and less than 500 in any one outbreak. This outbreak however was different, it was growing in an apparently exponential manner and cases were leaking out into the rest of the world. An outbreak of ebola growing in an apparently exponetial manner was headline news and IMO rightfully so.

      Many organisations both governmental and non-governmental started p

  • What's next, I Don't Know.
  • by Anonymous Coward

    Is it time to back to the previous slashdot threads and find all the predictions idiots were making of the majority of humanity being wiped out, the disease becoming entrenched in the US and taking out huge chunks of our population, and so on?

    Because those were all over the place.

    Not that the epidemic was anything very pleasant mind you. But some people were just off their rocker.

    • Huh. I don't remember seeing those. Maybe those comments were modded down, as they should have been.
      • Comment removed based on user account deletion
        • The US swamped (whatever that means) with infections in two weeks and "the majority of humanity being wiped out... taking out huge chunks of our population" are two entirely different events!
  • ...but I'm not entirely convinced.

    10,564 cases and 4,716 deaths, not something you sweep under the rug in a few months. Incubation times of the virus is still not confirmed.

    As far as I can remember, I heard that a lot of Africans were ashamed to go and check if they had the virus, a lot of them were suspicious of the health care workers and thought they would be injected with the virus from them, this kept a lot of them from going and getting themselves checked out.

    Furthermore, an outbreak of this ma

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