Sierra Leone's last known Ebola patient, Adama Sankoh, has left the hospital, dancing down a red carpet, with the president of the country cheering her on.
"It was like she was a rock star. There were at least 100 people there — politicians, press — everyone wanting a photograph of her," said a spokesman for the
International Medical Corps
Sankoh must test negative for 42 days, before the World Health Organization will declare Sierra Leone virus-free.
"It's been a very exciting day, people were really celebrating. This is a very important step towards ending the epidemic here in Sierra Leone," Andres Nordstrom, who heads the country's WHO operations, tells NPR.
The
Associated Press reports
"President Ernest Bai Koroma presented a certificate of discharge to Adama Sankoh, 40, who contracted Ebola after her son died from the disease late last month."The Ebola fight is not yet over — go and tell members of your community that," the president said when presenting the certificate to the woman. "Go back to your community and continue to live life as you used to."
Nordstrom tells NPR that people were dancing and singing in the country with the news of the last Ebola patient being released from the hospital. He says while this is an important milestone, this is "just beginning of the journey."
"Of course the work is continuing just as intensive to ensure that we are acting on all alerts in the country," Nordstrom says. "The risk is definitely not over. So we need now to continue to work to engage people, the communities, active surveillance to make sure that that whatever is potentially coming out we will then be able to contain rapidly."
NPR
WHO declared Libera
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