Turkish police personnel inspect the wreckage of a blastdamaged building in Diyarbakir, Turkey, on Thursday. (Photo: AFP)

Putin claims Russia has developed vaccine

The world breathed a sigh of relief Thursday as a two-year Ebola epidemic that killed 11,000 people and triggered a global health alert was declared over, with Liberia the last country to get the all-clear.

The deadliest outbreak in the history of the feared tropical virus wrecked the economies and health systems of the three worst-hit west African nations after it emerged in southern Guinea in December 2013.

At its peak, it devastated Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, with bodies piling up in the streets and overwhelmed hospitals recording hundreds of new cases a week. “Today the World Health Organisation declares the end of the most recent outbreak of Ebola virus disease in Liberia and says all known chains of transmission have been stopped in West Africa,” the UN health agency announced in Geneva.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon has warned the region can expect sporadic cases in the coming year but added “we also expect the potential and frequency of those flare-ups to decrease over time”.

“The end of Ebola transmission in West Africa is testament to what we can achieve when multilateralism works as it should, bringing the international community to work alongside national governments in caring for their people,” he told a General Assembly briefing on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed on Thursday his country had developed a vaccine for the Ebola virus.

But Mr Putin did not give any name for the vaccine. “We have good news,” Mr Putin said, adding, “We have registered a drug against Ebola, which after the corresponding tests has been shown to be highly effective, more effective than the drugs used worldwide up to now.”