Singing and Dancing with Ebola – Part 2

On 25 August 2015 I wrote a post about a patient and medical staff celebrating the release of the last patient and starting the countdown to being Ebola free – Singing and Dancing with Ebola.  If there were no Ebola cases for 42 days the country would be declared Ebola free.  Now almost three months later I am writing again.  It wasn’t until 7 November that Sierra Leone had 42 days with no new cases.  Again they celebrated with singing and dancing.

I especially like the hearse driver at 1:40 in the video.

On the same day, 7 November, the BBC reported that the last Ebola case in Guinea had tested negative twice so the 42 day countdown had started.  She was a three week old baby whose mother was infected and died after giving birth.

Liberia had been declared Ebola free on 9 May 2015 but then there were more cases but on 3 September Liberia was again declared Ebola free.  Yesterday, 20 November, three new cases were reported in Liberia.

I hope and pray that soon all three countries will be rejoicing.

Singing and Dancing with Ebola

On 24 August 2015 Adama Sankoh was released from an Ebola treatment centre in Makeni​, Sierra Leone.

(Alie Turay / Associated Press)

She was the last confirmed Ebola case.  Now the country waits during a 42 day period to make sure that there are no new cases.

(WHO / M. Harris)

Here is the video posted by International Medical Corps.

Published on Aug 25, 2015

On August 24, 2015, the last known patient with Ebola in the entire country of Sierra Leone stepped out of the treatment center after having recovered from the disease. If no new cases are diagnosed in the next 42 days, Sierra Leone can finally be declared Ebola free. In this video, International Medical Corps Ebola workers celebrate with Adama, the Ebola survivor, as she walks out of the Ebola Treatment Center for the last time.

As you can see from this graphic below from the WHO, only Guinea is still reporting new cases of Ebola.

World Health Organization – Ebola Situation Report – 26 August 2015

Hopefully, there also will be celebratory singing and dancing in Guinea very soon.