Sierra Leone now free from Ebola nightmare

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The Ebola epidemic is expected to be declared over in Sierra Leone on Saturday, when the west African nation will have gone 42 days without any new infections.

But jubilation over ending the outbreak in the impoverished nation, where almost 4 000 deaths have been reported, has been tempered by caution, with neighbouring Guinea still battling the virus.

Ebola was found in a 25-year-old pregnant Guinean woman and two of her children in Forecariah district, near the Sierra Leone border, in mid-October.

Her baby was delivered during her treatment and also tested positive, the World Health Organization (WHO) said in the latest of its weekly updates on the crisis on Wednesday.

Guinea is now monitoring 382 possible contacts, 141 of them deemed "high risk", it said.

Palo Conteh, the head of Sierra Leone's Ebola response, told a news conference in Freetown on Wednesday there were no plans for "an elaborate celebration".

Instead, the WHO will deliver a formal declaration in the capital on Saturday of the end of the epidemic.