Nigeria declared Ebola-free as virus runs rampant in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea

Nigeria and Senegal have been declared free of Ebola – but in neighbouring Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia the virus is ‘out of control’.

Emergency food supplies are being distributed in Sierra Leone, and Liberia is described as being ‘at a standstill’ as the virus takes hold, with more than 2,000 dead.

The total death toll has risen to more than 4,500 people from the 9,000 infected, according to the World Health Organization.

WHO warns that by December there could be as many as 10,000 new infections per week.

Fourteen other West African countries have been identified as at risk and steps are being taken to prepare them, said Isabelle Nuttall, director of WHO’s global capacities.

Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf said Ebola has killed more than 2,000 people in her country and has brought it to ‘a standstill,’ noting that Liberia and two other badly hit countries were already weakened by years of war.

Appealing for more international help, Sirleaf described the devastating effects of Ebola in a ‘Letter to the World’ that was broadcast Sunday by the BBC.

‘Across West Africa, a generation of young people risk being lost to an economic catastrophe as harvests are missed, markets are shut and borders are closed,’ the Nobel Peace Prize laureate said.

‘The virus has been able to spread so rapidly because of the insufficient strength of the emergency, medical and military services that remain under-resourced.’

The virus is thought to spread to humans from animals, especially bats – the first outbreaks occurred in remote African villages, but the current outbreak has spread to large cities.

The current outbreak began in March 2014 – on August 8, the World Health Organisation declared it an international Public Health Emergency.

In neighboring Sierra Leone, emergency food rations were distributed for a third day Sunday to give a nutritional lifeline to 260,000 residents of an Ebola-stricken community on the outskirts of the capital, Freetown.

The Waterloo area has 350 houses under quarantine with people suspected of having the Ebola virus and infections in the district are rising, according to the U.N. World Food Program. Packets with food for 30 days were delivered to the quarantined homes and to Ebola patients at treatment centers.

The rest of Waterloo’s residents went to 60 distribution centers to receive the food supplies. The mass distribution, which started on Friday, for the most part went smoothly but was disrupted at two of the 60 distribution points by people pressing to get the food, said Gon Myers, WFP director in Sierra Leone.

The emergency food deliveries came as the international community ramps up its response to the Ebola epidemic in West Africa, which continues to spread.

Sirleaf noted that the three hard-hit countries were already in bad shape when the first-ever outbreak of Ebola in West Africa began.

‘There is no coincidence Ebola has taken hold in three fragile states – Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea – all battling to overcome the effects of interconnected wars,’ Liberia’s leader said, adding that Liberia once had 3,000 medical doctors but by the end of its civil war, which ended 11 years ago, the country had just 36.

‘This fight requires a commitment from every nation that has the capacity to help, whether that is with emergency funds, medical supplies or clinical expertise … It is the duty of all of us, as global citizens, to send a message that we will not leave millions of West Africans to fend for themselves against an enemy that they do not know, and against whom they have little defense,’ Sirleaf said.