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US Shuts Ebola Treatment Center in Liberia


FILE - A health care worker assists a colleague inside a USAID-funded Ebola clinic in Monrovia, Liberia, Jan. 30, 2015.
FILE - A health care worker assists a colleague inside a USAID-funded Ebola clinic in Monrovia, Liberia, Jan. 30, 2015.

U.S. health officials are closing down a treatment unit they set up in Liberia at the height of the Ebola crisis last year, as that country prepares to be declared free of the deadly virus.

Liberia has gone 32 days without a new Ebola case. If it stays that way until May 9, the World Health Organization most likely will declare the country Ebola-free.

On Thursday, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy praised the "response and resilience'' of Liberians.

The U.S. government last year deployed more than 2,000 troops to fight Ebola in Liberia, setting up about 15 treatment centers. Six of the centers are still being used by local health workers for various purposes. The troops were withdrawn in February as the number of cases declined.

The World Health Organization said the virus has killed more than 10,000 people, mostly in the West African nations of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. At least 24,340 people have been infected with Ebola since the West African outbreak began in December 2013.

Liberia has seen the most deaths in the Ebola outbreak, with more than 4,600 reported.

Some information for this report came from AP.

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