WHO declares Nigeria free of Ebola

It has been 42 days since the last reported infection in Nigeria, twice the maximum incubation period for the virus

A teacher checks students' temperatures at a school in Nigeria, part of a rigorous campaign to keep Ebola from spreading
A teacher checks students' temperatures at a school in Nigeria, part of a rigorous campaign to keep Ebola from spreading

The World Health Organization declared Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, officially free of Ebola infections on Monday, calling the outcome the result of “world-class epidemiological detective work.”

The announcement came 42 days after the last reported infection in Nigeria’s outbreak, twice the maximum incubation period for the Ebola virus.

The Nigerian response was upheld by the WHO as an example of the measures other countries can take to halt the spread of the epidemic, which is concentrated in three West African countries: Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

More than 9,000 people have become infected in the epidemic, over 4,500 people have died, and the number of infections is still doubling every month, the organization has reported.

Although infection rates have slowed in some districts of the three worst affected countries, the organization has also reported the spread of the disease to new areas, including districts of Guinea bordering Ivory Coast.