Reporting from Dakar, Senegal — The World Health Organization said Tuesday that the Ebola outbreak in West Africa no longer qualifies as an international health emergency, although it cautioned that male survivors can infect their sexual partners for up to a year after recovering.
The decision by the WHO’s Ebola emergency committee comes following flare-ups that emerged in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone after authorities declared virus transmission over. The new cases sometimes were publicized only hours after the public announcements were made.
“Complacency at this stage would be completely wrong,” said Robert Steffen, the committee’s vice chairman.
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The announcement puts an end to the international emergency declaration, which has been controversial. An Associated Press investigation found that the WHO initially delayed making the declaration — similar to an SOS signal — on political, economic and religious grounds.
Tuesday’s announcement also comes as the organization fights the Zika virus that has prompted concern in the Americas. Steffen said the battle against Zika in no way dictated the committee’s decision to declare the Ebola emergency over.
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Sanitized gloves and boots hang to dry as a burial team collects Ebola victims from a Ministry of Health treatment center for cremation on Oct. 2 in Monrovia, Liberia. (John Moore / Getty Images)
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Medical personnel at the Ebola treatment center at Island hospital in Monrovia, Liberia, disinfect people who had brought patients suspected of having the Ebola virus on Oct. 2. (Pascal Guyot / AFP/Getty Images)
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A man transports a possible Ebola victim in a wheelbarrow on Oct. 2 at a treatment center at Island hospital in Monrovia, Liberia. (Pascal Guyot / AFP/Getty Images)
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A health worker attends to a girl at the Doctors Without Borders Ebola treatment unit in Monrovia, Liberia. (Pascal Guyot / AFP/Getty Images)
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Markers for the graves of Ebola victims await placement in Bong County, Liberia. (Robyn Dixon / Los Angeles Times)
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Nurses receive training from the World Health organization on how to use equipment to protect themselves from Ebola in the Sierra Leone capital, Freetown, on Sept. 18. (Michael Duff / Associated Press)
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A burial team, clad in protective gear, carries the body of a child at the International Medical Corps Ebola treatment unit in Bong County, Liberia. The girl, who watched her mother grow sick and die of the virus, died alone and terrified, workers said. (Robyn Dixon / Los Angeles Times)
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Medical staff members in protective suits work in the high-risk Ebola area of the ELWA Hospital in Monrovia, Liberia. (Dominque Faget / AFP/Getty Images)
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Traffic is stopped at a Guinean security force roadblock to screen people for symptoms of Ebola near the town of Forecariah, Guinea. (Youssouf Bah / Associated Press)
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A health worker looking for signs of Ebola checks a man’s temperature at a roadblock run by Guinean security forces outside the town of Forecariah, Guinea. (Youssouf Bah / Associated Press)
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A vehicle loaded with household items pauses at the border town of Diaobe in Senegal’s southern border region as people prepare to drive into Guinea. The Ebola epidemic is spreading in West Africa, spurring people to flee. (Seyllou / AFP/Getty Images)
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A worker in a protective suit empties possibly Ebola-contaminated waste in a high-risk quarantine zone of the John F. Kennedy Memorial Medical Center in Monrovia, Liberia. (Dominque Faget / AFP/Getty Images)
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A man who was showing symptoms of possible Ebola listens as UNICEF health workers speak about Ebola prevention in New Kru Town, Liberia. (John Moore / Getty Images)
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A resident checks on a very sick Saah Exco, 10, in a Monrovia alley. The Liberian boy was one of a number of patients pulled from a holding center for suspected Ebola patients when the facility was overrun by a mob. A local clinic refused to treat him, residents said. (John Moore / Getty Images)
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Workers from the Liberian Ministry of Health disinfect themselves before burning the bodies of Ebola victims at a crematorium in Marshall, Liberia. (John Moore / Getty Images)
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A quarantine officer checks the body temperature of a passenger as a precaution against the Ebola virus at the Incheon International Airport in South Korea. South Korea has stepped up monitoring of citizens returning from West Africa. (Choe Jae-koo / Associated Press)
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Ebola patient Nancy Writebol is wheeled into Emory University Hospital in Atlanta. (John Spink /Atlanta Journal-Constitution / MCT)
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A Nigerian crew waits to screen passengers for Ebola symptoms at the arrival hall of the international airport in Lagos. (Sunday Alamba / Associated Press)
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A 10-year-old boy is showered after being taken out of quarantine following his mother’s death from the Ebola virus, at the Samaritan’s Purse Ebola treatment center in Monrovia, Liberia. (Zoom Dosso / AFP/Getty Images)
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A nurse with Doctors Without Borders examines a patient at a center in Gueckedou, Guinea. (Seyllou / AFP/Getty Images)
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Social commentator Alfred Sirleaf, center rear, discusses the virus in Monrovia, Liberia. (Jonathan Paye-Layleh / Associated Press)
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While there have been flare-ups of new cases, health authorities said Tuesday those were not linked to the original chains of transmission dating to December 2013.
“We know that little clusters will continue to flare up. That will be normal life just as, in previous decades, there have been every now and then outbreaks of Ebola in various parts of sub-Saharan Africa,” Steffen said.
More than 11,000 people have died, mostly in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone since December 2013. There are currently no known cases in Liberia or Sierra Leone, though Guinea recently reported two confirmed and three probable cases. Authorities are now monitoring nearly 1,000 contacts of the sick.
