Liberia releases last known Ebola patient from treatment

She is “one of the happiest persons on Earth today.” She’s a 58-year-old English teacher. And she could be Liberia’s last Ebola patient in a devastating West African outbreak that began more than a year ago.

Beatrice Yardolo was released from an Ebola treatment center in the Liberian capital, Monrovia, on Thursday after testing negative for the disease the day before. She is believed to be the country’s last Ebola patient.

In order to be declared Ebola-free, the country now has to sit out 42 days — double the 21-day incubation period of the virus —without a case.

But its neighbors, Guinea and Sierra Leone, have seen recent setbacks, as unsafe burial practices continue, according to the World Health Organization.

Since the outbreak began, Liberia has seen 4,117 deaths and 9,249 total cases believed to be due to Ebola.

Near 24,000 people across the region have been infected, and 9,807 people have died, all but a handful of them in West Africa.