WHO: Ebola epidemic in West Africa officially over

The Ebola epidemic that killed more than 11,000 people in West Africa is no longer an international emergency, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared Tuesday. But more healing is yet to come for some of the countries that have battled the outbreak since December 2013.

Dr. Margaret Chan, WHO director general, said the Ebola emergency committee concluded the risk of an international emergency is low and the affected countries now have the capacity to respond rapidly to any new emergence of the virus.

“The original Ebola outbreak has come to an end,” said Dr. Robert Steffen, the committee vice chairman. “The original chains of transmission are terminated now.”

The Ebola outbreak began in Guinea and spread to cause more fatalities in Liberia and Sierra Leone. Chan called for all travel and trade bans to be lifted from the now-cleared countries.

The WHO’s decision follows flare-ups of new cases not related to the original epidemic. Guinea recently reported two confirmed and three probable cases. Local authorities are monitoring nearly 1,000 contacts of the sick. But the emergency committee said it expected these random cases to occur.

“We know that little clusters will continue to flare up,” Steffen said. “That will be normal life, just as in previous decades, there have been, every now and then, outbreaks of Ebola in various parts of sub-Saharan Africa.”

The announcement brings closure to some of the badly affected countries. In Liberia, nearly 5,000 people died from the epidemic. But the memories and physical reminders of the outbreak still remain. In Boys Town near Monrovia, the country’s capital, many locals remember the rumbling sound of the now-silent incinerator used to cremate the bodies of the sick to avoid infection.

“Even the little ones, when they used to see the trucks pass with dead bodies on board, they would call our attention saying, ‘The people are bringing bodies again,’” said Doris Reeves, who runs a shop across the crematorium’s entrance. “Then we would lock our children indoors. It was very, very fearful.”

Chan called for the affected countries to remain alert to avoid another deadly outbreak.

“A high level of vigilance and response capacity must be maintained to ensure the ability of the countries to prevent the Ebola infections and to rapidly detect and respond to flare ups in the future,” Chan said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.