Schools reopened in Guinea this week, just as Mali became the region's latest country to be declared Ebola-free by the World Health Organization, following Nigeria and Senegal. The two developments are signs that life is slowly returning to normal as West Africa recovers from the world's worst-ever Ebola epidemic. It is far from over yet. But there is, at last, hope that the end of the outbreak may be within sight. There have been 21,614 cases of Ebola in this epidemic, and 8,594 deaths, according to the latest WHO figures. But crucially, the number of new cases is declining in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, the countries worst affected.
