Just a few months ago, no one could get through a single news broadcast without hearing the word “Ebola” mentioned. Now, the virus, once a major media phenomenon, has started drastically dying down, literally. There have been nearly 9,000 deaths from the recent outbreak, according to the World Health Organization. The U.S. CDC previously estimated that by January 20, 2015, there would be 1.4 million cases in Liberia and Sierra Leone. But, in fact, only 21,797 cases were recorded by that date.
Many people in Liberia have returned to ordinary activities after forcibly putting their lives on hold to stay away from the virus. An elementary school that had been previously been made into a makeshift hospital for Ebola patients has been transformed back into a school and is letting the children of Monrovia return to their daily classes. One mother from Liberia, Mabel Togba, told The New York Times, “They still haven’t told us that Liberia is free of Ebola, so I’m still afraid, but it’s better than to leave my children at home doing nothing.” Though there is still fear that Ebola has not been eradicated, people are ready and desperate to get back to their ordinary lives.
The cases of Ebola in Sierra Leone and Guinea dropped to fewer than 100 known cases a few weeks ago, a drastic change from the hundreds of cases that seemed out of control just a few months ago. Patrick Chea, 19, said, “We used to be afraid to touch our friends, but the fear is small, small now.” While Ebola has been out of the media for awhile in the U.S., it has started going out of the media of the places it affected the most.