In August, the World Health Organization had a dire warning: Ebola might become unstoppable after it reached Lagos, Nigeria—Africa’s biggest city, where millions live in slums and shantytowns. Now, the WHO says, “world-class epidemiological detective work” has stopped Ebola “dead in its tracks”—not just in Nigeria, but in Senegal as well. Nightmare scenarios have been avoided. In both countries, 42 days have passed since the last reported case of Ebola—that’s twice the 21-day incubation period and the standard for declaring an outbreak over.
Geoffrey York reports from Johannesburg, South Africa, for Canada’s Globe and Mail. He’s just returned from Liberia.