Spain was officially declared Ebola free on Dec. 2, according to the World Health Organization.
On Oct. 6, a health care worker in Spain was diagnosed with Ebola after providing care for a patient sent from Sierra Leone, the first case of Ebola transmission outside of Africa. The health care worker recovered and a negative blood sample was returned on Oct. 21. No additional cases were reported, so 42 days after the negative blood sample was returned, the WHO declared Spain Ebola free.
The Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone continues to worsen, with more than 700 reported cases in the past week, bringing the total number to over 7,300 reported cases, and nearly 1,600 reported deaths. Overall, there are more than 17,000 reported cases and nearly 6,100 deaths in West Africa, with Liberia reporting more than 7,600 cases and nearly 3,150 deaths and Guinea reporting more than 2,150 cases and more than 1,300 deaths. New case incidence in Guinea and Liberia seems to be stabilizing, the WHO reported.
There have now been eight cases of Ebola in Mali, and six deaths, with seven cases and five deaths related to the treatment of an imam from Guinea in Bamako, capital of Mali. The last case was a young child who died in late October, and is not related to the outbreak in the capital. The United States has had four cases of Ebola and one death. While no new localized transmissions have occurred since October, the United States continues to receive health care workers from Africa with Ebola for treatment.
The unrelated outbreak of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo also is over, and the country was declared Ebola free on Nov. 21. The outbreak there was much smaller than the current one in West Africa and the seventh in the country’s history, with 66 cases and 49 deaths reported.