Sierra Leone celebrated an important milestone on Monday, 24 August 2015. For the first time in more than a year, there are no people being treated for Ebola virus disease and no confirmed cases of Ebola in the country.

Surrounded by singing, dancing and clapping health-care workers, Adama Sankou, palm oil trader, was released from the Makheni Ebola treatment unit. In the ceremony held to mark the final Ebola case, the President of Sierra Leone, Ernest Bai Koroma, described Madame Sankou's release as "the beginning of the end of Ebola."

"'Ebola nor don don" (Ebola is not yet finished), the President told Madame Sankou as he handed her a certificate confirming that she was now negative for Ebola virus. He asked her to remind her friends and family to call the Ebola hotline immediately if anyone in their community develops symptoms of Ebola or dies at home.

Madame Sankou told the gathering of health-care workers, Ebola survivors, leaders of national and district Ebola response teams and representatives of the agencies working to fight Ebola that she had learned about the disease the hard way. Now, she said, she knows that safe burial and thorough handwashing is essential for protecting against Ebola virus disease.

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