Ebola-free: Liberia celebrates

IN A world where grim, disheartening news seems almost relentless the weekend announcement by the World Health Organisation that Liberia is believed to be free of the ebola virus is cheering and very welcome.

A terrible affliction that preyed on the weakest and most vulnerable societies, its impact was exacerbated because once contacted all of the natural human interaction that sustains any of us through a life-threatening illness becomes impossible.

Television footage broadcast at the height of the crisis showed one of the world’s poorest societes struggling with the most basic resources to respond effectively to its terrifying ravages.

That Liberia’s neighbours, Guinea and Sierra Leone, continue to fight the outbreak must provoke questions among the world’s richest nations about the generosity of our response and whether we did enough to fight this enemy of all humanity.

Answering that question should not be long-fingered until the next outbreak because, unlike poverty, ebola is an equal-opportunities killer.

DISCOVER MORE CONTENT LIKE THIS