Sierra Leone Soon to be Declared Ebola-Free After Release of The Last Known Patient

35-year-old Adama Sankoh, the last known Ebola Virus patient in Sierra Leone has been discharged from a treatment centre in the northern Bombali district. Report says that the discharge marks the beginning of a forty-two-day countdown until the World Health Organisation can declare the West African country Ebola-free. 

The release of the cured patient was celebrated by crowds dancing in the streets, beating drums, cars honking their horns and radio and television stations playing the national anthem. 

Adama Sankoh, centre, health officials and others during the celebration (AP)

This celebration which was held at the clinic run by International Medical Corps in Makeni, the country's third-largest city,was attended by the country's President.
The President Ernest Bai Koroma who presented the certificate to Adama Sankoh, hailed "the beginning of the end of Ebola in Sierra Leone" in his word to the woman he said "Go back to your community and continue to live life as you used to."

Adama Sankoh 

Sierra Leone had its first Ebola case in May 2014, after a woman tested positive on her return home from a funeral in Guinea. Some 4,000 people have since died in the country.
By the time Sierra Leon is declared free, only Guinea, (where the epidemic first began in late 2013) would be left with Ebola cases in West Africa.Meanwhile, a small number of cases are still being reported in Guinea.

Since the first emergence in December 2013, the worst outbreak of Ebola in history has infected nearly 28,000 people and left some 11,300 dead - mostly across Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea.

Ebola is spread through contact with the body fluids of an infected person.  Health officials have worked to contain the virus by isolating patients, monitoring their contacts, and insisting on safe burials for those who remain contagious after dying of Ebola.