It has been more than 6 months since the last diagnosis of Ebola in Guinea, Sierra Leone or Liberia. The three west African countries suffered nearly all of the more than 28,600 diagnosed cases and 11,300 deaths during the outbreak that began in December 2013 in a Guinean village.
Although the outbreak has ended, the scale of the epidemic collapsed these countries' health systems, while unleashing new medical crises. The capacity to treat even basic illnesses is now limited, while health needs of Ebola survivors stretch the services that do remain. With Ebola having killed health workers at a disproportionate rate, the years-long efforts to rebuild the health systems are only just beginning. Officials in all three settings acknowledge that the task ahead is immense.