Celebrations And Challenges In Sierra Leone As Country Hours Away From Being Declared Ebola Free

How the number of new Ebola cases has dwindled: This graph gives a quick view of how Ebola cases have fallen drastically. It shows the weekly number of cases of Ebola since the outbreak was declared.

Sierra Leone is just hours away from being declared Ebola-free by the World Health Organization after six weeks without a new infection. 

Nearly 4,000 Sierra Leoneans died of Ebola during the outbreak which started in 2014 (AFP)

People are getting to celebrate and also to commemorate the 3,955 people who died since the outbreak began in 2014. You can touch and feel, taste and even see the excitement here in the capital, Freetown. It's like a heavy load on the head of a child who wants to put it down.

BBC News report continues:

Tonight thousands of women are marching in the city and they will converge on the iconic cotton tree in the centre of Freetown to call out the names of the more than 200 healthcare workers who died during the Ebola crisus, and they'll be offering prayers for them.

Important day: Sierra Leone's President Ernest Bai Koroma

At President Ernest Bai Koroma's office and all around you could see all his staff back slapping and celebrating.

You could count all the president's teeth as he was smiling so broadly.

Sierra Leone's President Ernest Bai Koroma says that the country being declared Ebola-free on Saturday will be "a moment of great celebration for our people".

But he told the BBC's Umaru Fofana in the capital, Freetown, that that there will be "great challenges ahead" in getting the country back on track.

Tomorrow will mark six weeks in the country without a new Ebola infection.

Sierra Leone's Freedom From Ebola Virus Epidemic Sparks Street Parties And Sadness

The Mirror, UK reports:

Celebrations in the West African nation tomorrow will mark 42 days without a reported case

The country at the centre of West Africa’s deadly Ebola epidemic will tomorrow be declared officially free of the disease. Street parties in Sierra Leone will mark 42 days without a reported case.

Celebrations and carnivals are set to coincide with the announcement from the World Health Organization that the country is at ‘Day Zero’.

But there will also be services to remember the country’s nearly 4,000 dead – 221 of them health workers, including 11 of the country’s 120 qualified doctors.

The UK poured aid worth £427million into the war-torn former British colony.

Medics and trainers were flown out along with vital equipment while mon­­­­­­ey was spent helping safely bury the dead. Three UK volunteers caught the disease.

President Ernest Bai Koroma will address the civil war-hit nation today before parties planned for mosques, churches, streets and beaches.

Isaac Ooko, for Save the Children in Sierra Leone, said: “This remarkable achievement is thanks to the strength and efforts of the entire nation.

“Together with support from countries including the UK, we have overcome the horrors of this brutal killer disease.

“By working with a nationwide network of community heroes, Save the Children was able to help even the smallest and most rural villages to tackle the virus.

 “The country is grieving its huge loss, but we will grow back stronger.

“Today we will celebrate, but tomorrow we must remain focused, as the risk of a new outbreak still remains.”

Ebola survivor Joshua, 14, was treated at the charity’s Kerry Town Treatment Centre. He lost 13 members of his family to the disease, including his father, younger brother and grandmother.

He said: “I can’t remember anything after hearing my brother had passed away. I was partially blind and unable to see what it was like and what happened to me.

"Even when I started regaining my life, they had to feed me and had to take care of me. I couldn’t do anything for myself.”

Tomorrow’s celebrations are set to be tempered with caution for the future because the virus is still affecting neighbouring Guinea, where the outbreak began in March 2014.

Abdulai Bayraytay, national publicity and outreach coordinator in the Sierra Leone’s government, said: “We will salute all the people who contributed in the fight and also to congratulate the resilience exhibited by Sierra Leoneans.

“[But] even before Saturday, the National Ebola Response Center has already informed the public that we are going to maintain the standard operating procedures in terms of dignified medical burial for any suspected case of Ebola - even though we would have been declared Ebola free.”

Guinea recorded four new heartbreaking cases last week - a baby born to an infected mother, who died after childbirth, and the newborn’s three siblings. Against all odds, the baby survived and is now being treated in an Ebola centre.

Since the outbreak began, there have been 28,571 confirmed, probable, and suspected cases of Ebola in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, up to Nov 1, with 11,299 deaths.

British nurses Pauline Cafferkey and Will Pooley, along with Army medic Cpl Anna Cross, were among those infected.

They were treated at specialists at the Royal Free Hospital and beat the virus.

But Miss Cafferkey, 39, from Scotland, was readmitted to the London hospital last month, nine months after getting the all-clear, following a relapse, the likes of which had never been seen before.

Doctors last said she was showing progress in fighting meningitis brought on by strains of Ebola hidden in her system but faced a long road to recovery.