How Liberia got to zero cases of Ebola
Today, 9 May 2015, marks 42 days since the last confirmed case of Ebola in Liberia was safely buried — the period of time set by WHO to declare an outbreak over. WHO now considers Liberia free of Ebola transmission. Reaching this milestone is a testament to the strong leadership and coordination of Liberian President and the Liberian Government, the determination and vigilance of Liberian communities, the extensive support of global partners, and the tireless and heroic work of local and international health teams. This story is about the factors that contributed to Liberia's success.
Making the Ebola response a priority
The first decisive factor was the leadership shown by President Sirleaf, who regarded the disease as a threat to the nation’s “economic and social fabric” and made the response a priority for multiple branches of government. Her swift and sometimes tough decisions, frequent public communications, and presence at outbreak sites were expressions of this leadership. As President Sirleaf famously stated in her memoir, “The size of your dreams must always exceed your current capacity to achieve them. If your dreams do not scare you, they are not big enough.”
Community engagement plays a critical role
Second, health officials and their partners were quick to recognize the importance of community engagement. Health teams understood that community leadership brings with it well-defined social structures, with clear lines of credible authority. Teams worked hard to win support from village chiefs, religious leaders, women’s associations, and youth groups.
One of the first signs that the outbreak might be turned around appeared in September 2014, when cases in Lofa county, Ebola’s initial epicentre, began to decline after a peak of more than 150 cases a week in mid-August. Epidemiologists would later link that decline to a package of interventions, with community engagement playing a critical role.
In Lofa, staff from the WHO country office moved from village to village, challenging chiefs and religious leaders to take charge of the response. Community task forces were formed to create house-to-house awareness, report suspected cases, call health teams for support, and conduct contact tracing.
See-through walls around the treatment centre replaced opaque ones, allowing families and friends to watch what was happening inside, thus dispelling many rumours.
Calls for transportation to treatment facilities or for burial teams were answered quickly, building confidence that teams were there to help.
Generous support from the international community
The effectiveness of this response, which was duplicated elsewhere, points to a third factor: generous support from the international community, including financial, logistical, and human resources. This support added more treatment beds, increased laboratory capacity, and augmented the number of contact tracing and burial teams.
The deployment of self-sufficient foreign medical teams from several countries had a dramatic impact on the outbreak’s evolution.
Finally, strong coordination of the international and national response was essential for success. International support was slow to start, but abundant when it arrived. Innovations such as the Presidential Advisory Committee on Ebola and introduction of a incident management system helped ensure that resources and capacities were placed where needed.
Many of these lessons and experiences are reflected in WHO’s new response plan, which aims to identify all remaining cases in West Africa by June 2015.
More stories on the Ebola response in Liberia
- What needs to happen in order to get us to zero cases of Ebola - video interview
- Liberia succeeds in fighting Ebola with local, sector response - April 2015
- Travelling the last mile to zero Ebola cases in Liberia - January 2015
- Keeping communities safe from contaminated waste - February 2015
- Survivor shares his experience fighting Ebola - December 2014
- Ebola treatment centre sets a new pace - October 2014
- Working with communities is the key to stopping Ebola - October 2014
- Ebola treatment centre sets a new pace - October 2014
- Ebola clinic fills up within hours of opening - September 2014
- Reaching out to communities at risk of Ebola in Liberia - July 2014
- Accelerating WHO emergency response to Ebola outbreak in Liberia: Contact tracing - July 2014
- WHO ramps up to address Ebola challenges, to prevent new infections in Guinea and Liberia - April 2014