Staying at zero: Keeping Ebola out of Liberia

WHO                                                                  June 19, 2105
Ebola transmission may be over in Liberia, but in northwestern Lofa County health officials are concerned about its return. The virus first surfaced in the county in March 2014 via a traveller from Guinea and went on to devastate the country.

All 6 districts of northwestern Lofa County share a border with Guinea or Sierra Leone, where the Ebola transmission continues. Every day, hundreds of people pour into Lofa from the 2 Ebola-hit countries — traders, merchants, farmers and other economic migrants, relatives of Liberians attending weddings and funerals and patients going to Liberian health centres in border towns. On market days, the numbers double. They enter Liberia through 33 official border checkpoints and nearly 300 unofficial, mostly unmanned crossings.

"We are at high risk that Ebola will resurface in Liberia as long as transmission continues in neighbouring countries," warns Tamba Alpha, the top surveillance officer in Lofa and the man in charge of implementing the Liberian Government’s action plan to prevent re-importation of the virus. "My greatest worry is that people think Ebola is finished and are going back to their normal practices at a time when community members, health workers, local authorities, security, everyone needs to continue precautions and surveillance."

Read complete story.

http://www.who.int/features/2015/liberia-staying-at-zero/en/