"DAKAR, Senegal — The World Health Organization declared on Thursday the end to the deadliest Ebola outbreak on record, which killed and sickened tens of thousands of people in West Africa, even as it cautioned that more flare-ups of the disease were likely.

The announcement in Geneva came after a recent chain of cases in Liberia was snuffed out, marking the first time since the start of the epidemic two years ago that Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone — the three countries that were hardest hit by the virus — had reported zero cases for at least 42 days, or two incubation periods of the virus.

Margaret Chan, the director general of the W.H.O., hailed the “monumental achievement” in curbing the outbreak, which, the United Nations said, killed more than 11,300 people and infected more than 28,500. At the height of the outbreak, the bodies of victims piled up in the streets of towns and cities that were overwhelmed and ill equipped to cope with the scale and speed of transmission."

Dionne Searcey, Nick Cumming-Bruce, and Clair MacDougall report for the New York Times January 14, 2016. [2]