世界卫生组织宣布利比里亚的埃博拉疫情结束

The World Health Organization has announced an end to the Ebola virus outbreak in Liberia, meaning all three countries at the epicenter of the west African outbreak are now considered Ebola-free.

The WHO announcement came Thursday after 42 days without a new reported case in Liberia. When announcing the milestone, the WHO cautioned that more small outbreaks are expected and called for continued strong surveillance to keep the disease at bay.

The WHO representative in Liberia, Alex Gasasira, pledged that the organization will continue to support Liberia in its effort to prevent, detect, and respond to any new Ebola cases.

This is the third time Liberia has been declared Ebola-free.  The first declaration came in May 2015, but the disease recurred twice since then, with the latest outbreak in November.

This is the first time all three nations that hosted the outbreak -- Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone -- have all been Ebola-free at the same time. Sierra Leone was declared Ebola-free on November 7 and Guinea on December 29.

The Ebola epidemic in west Africa took 11,000 lives and infected more than 28,500 people.

世界卫生组织星期四做出了上述宣布。在此之前的42天里，利比里亚没有报告任何新病例。在做出这一里程碑式的宣告之际，世卫组织告诫说，预计还会有小范围的疫情出现，并呼吁继续保持密切监控，谨防疫情扩散。

世卫组织驻利比里亚代表加萨西拉表示，世卫组织将继续支持利比里亚预防、追踪、应对新的埃博拉病例。

这是利比里亚第三次宣布埃博拉疫情结束。第一次是在去年5月，但随后又两次出现新疫情。最近一轮疫情是去年11月出现的。

这是埃博拉疫情突发的三个国家，利比里亚、几内亚和塞拉利昂首次同时处于疫情结束状态。塞拉利昂和几内亚分别于去年11月7日和12月9日宣布疫情结束。

西非的埃博拉疫情共造成11000人死亡，28500多人感染。