the lockdown was extended for two weeks. on this day the country reported 9780 cases with 2943 deaths. among healthcare workers there were 296 cases with 221 fatalities reported. on 8 january, msf admitted its first patients to a treatment centre (etc) in kissy, an ebola hotspot on the outskirts of freetown. once the etc is fully operational it will include specialist facilities for pregnant women. by 9 january, the case load in the country exceeded 10,000, with 10,074 cases and 3,029 deaths reported. on 9 january, it was reported that south korea would send a medical team to goderich. on 10 january, sierra leone declared its first ebola-free district. the pujehun district in the south east of the country reported no new cases for 42 days. february 2015 a worker at kerry town clinic was evacuated to the united kingdom on 2 february 2015, after a needlestick injury. on 5 february, it was reported that there was a rise in weekly cases for the first time this year. the u.n. indicated that the sharp drop in cases had "flattened out" raising concern about the virus. march 2015 port loko district ebola response centre staff remove contaminated items in april 2015. on 5 march, a report indicated cases in sierra leone continued to rise. the government of sierra leone declared a three-day country-wide lock-down including 2.5 million people on 18 march. the u.n. indicates the outbreak will be over by august of this year. the 3-day lock-down of over 6 million inhabitants revealed a 191% increase in possible ebola cases. in freetown alone 173 patients meeting the criteria for ebola were discovered according to obi sesay from the national ebola response center. spring 2015 as of 12 may, sierra leone had gone 8 days without an ebola case, and was down to two confirmed cases of ebola. the who weekly update for 29 july reported a total of only three new cases, the lowest total in more than a year. on 17 august, the country had its first week with no new cases, and one week later the last patients were released. august/september 2015 a new death was reported on 1 september after a patient from sella kafta village in kambia district was tested positive for the disease after her death. on 5 september, another case of ebola was identified in the village among the approximately 1000 people currently under quarantine. a woman tested positive for the virus. the "guinea ring vaccine" has been administered by a who team in the village since friday 5 september. on 8 september the head of the national ebola response center confirmed new cases of ebola. this brought the total from the village to four cases, with all of them being under the "high risk" contact cases with the death of the new index case in the village. in total four cases were then confirmed including the dead woman. on 14 september, the national ebola response center confirmed the death of a 16-year-old in a village in the bombali district. swabs taken from the body tested positive for the disease. the village was placed under quarantine. she had no history of traveling outside the village, and it is suspected that she contracted the disease from the semen of an ebola survivor who was discharged in march 2015. seven of her immediate contacts were taken to an ebola treatment center, with a further three patients she had contact with at a health clinic. a new study to be published in the new england journal of medicine indicates the possibility that the virus may lurk in the semen of survivors for up to six months. nearly half of 200 patients tested had traces of the virus in their semen six months after surviving the disease. on 7 november, the world health organization declared sierra leone ebola-free. january 2016 sierra leone entered a 90-day period of enhanced surveillance which was scheduled to conclude on 5 february 2016, but due to a new case in mid-january it did not. on 14 january, it was reported there had been a fatality linked to the ebola virus. the case occurred in the tonkolili district. prior to this case who had advised, "we anticipate more flare-ups and must be prepared for them ... massive effort is underway to ensure robust prevention, surveillance and response capacity across all three countries by the end of march." on 16 january, it was reported that the woman who died of the virus may have exposed several individuals; the government announced that 100 people had been quarantined. on the same day, who released a statement, indicating that originally the 90-day enhanced surveillance period was to end on 5 february. investigations indicate the female case was a student at lunsar in port loko district, who had gone to kambia district on december the 28th until returning symptomatic. bombali district was visited by the individual, for consultation with an herbalist, later going to a government hospital in magburaka. who indicates there are 109 contacts, 28 of which are high risk, furthermore, there are three missing contacts.the source or route of transmission which caused the fatality is still unknown. a second new case was confirmed on 20 january; the patient had contact with the previous fatality. on 17 march, the who declared the country ebola-free. healthcare capacity long-term political factors contributed to the ebola crisis including the acute dependency on external health assistance, patron-client politics, corruption and a weak state capacity. prior to the ebola epidemic sierra leone had about 136 doctors and 1,017 nurses/midwives for a population of about 6 million people. on 26 august, the who (world health organisation) shut down one of two laboratories after a health worker became infected. the laboratory was situated in the kailahun district, one of the worst-affected areas. it was thought by some that this move would disrupt efforts to increase the global response to the outbreak of the disease in the district. "it's a temporary measure to take care of the welfare of our remaining workers", who spokesperson christy feig announced. he did not specify how long the closure would last, but said they would return after an assessment of the situation by the who. the medical worker, one of the first who staff infected by the ebola virus, was treated at a hospital in kenema and then evacuated to germany. by 4 october 2014, it was announced he has recovered and left germany. as the ebola epidemic grew it damaged the health care infrastructure, leading to increased deaths from other health issues including malaria, diarrhoea, and pneumonia because they were not being treated. the who estimated on 21 september that sierra leone's capacity to treat ebola cases fell short by the equivalent of 532 beds. death of health workers st john of god hospital sierra leone, also known as mabesseneh hospital, near lunsar. this is one of the hospitals operated in part by the spanish aid organization brothers hospitallers of st. john of god, which lost multiple health workers to ebola including two evacuated to spain. on 27 august 2014, dr. sahr rogers died from ebola after contracting it working in kenema. sierra leone lost three of its top doctors by the end of august to ebola. a fourth doctor, dr. olivette buck, became ill with ebola in september and died later that month. dr. olivette buck was a sierra leone doctor who worked in freetown, who tested positive for ebola on 9 september 2014, and died on 14 september 2014. her staff believes she was exposed in august. she eventually went to lumley hospital on 1 september 2014, with a fever, thinking it was malaria. after a few more days of illness she was admitted to connaught hospital. by 23 september 2014, out of 91 health workers known to have been infected with ebola in sierra leone, approximately 61 had died. on 19 october, the who reported 129 cases with 95 deaths of healthcare workers (125 / 91 confirmed). on 2 november 2014, a fifth doctor, dr. godfrey george, a medical superintendent of kambia government hospital died as a result of ebola infection. on 17 november 2014, a sixth doctor, dr martin salia, died as a result of ebola infection, after being transported by medevac to nebraska medical center in the united states. on 18 november 2014, a seventh doctor, dr michael kargbo, died in sierra leone. he worked at the magburaka government hospital. dr. aiah solomon konoyeima was reported to have ebola in late november 2014, which would make him the eighth physician to contract ebola. he was reported to have died from the disease on 7 december 2014, becoming what was reported as the tenth doctor to die from ebola. on 26 november 2014, a ninth doctor, dr. songo mbriwa, was reported to be sick with ebola disease. he was working at an ebola treatment centre in freetown. he was one of the doctors that cared for the late dr martin salia, who experienced a false-negative ebola test, but did indeed have it and may have exposed others. on friday 5 december, a senior health official announced the death of two of the country's doctors in one day. this brings the total number of doctors who have died from the disease in sierra leone to ten. dr dauda koroma and dr thomas rogers are the latest deaths among healthcare workers. the two doctors were not in the front line of the ebola battle and did not work in an ebola treatment hospital. on 18 december, dr. victor willoughby died from the disease after being tested positive for the disease on saturday 6 december. the doctor died hours before he was to receive zmab, an experimental treatment from canada, according to dr. brima kargbo the country's chief medical officer. dr. victor willoughby is the 11th doctor, and a top physician, to succumb to the disease. evacuations since the beginning of the outbreak in sierra leone in late may 2014, several people have been evacuated. an increasing lack of hospital beds, medical equipment, and health care personnel made treatment difficult.on 24 august william pooley, a british nurse, was evacuated from sierra leone. he was released on 3 september 2014. in october 2014, he announced he would return to sierra leone. on 21 september 2014, spain evacuated a catholic priest who had contracted ebola while working in sierra leone with hospital order of san juan de dios. he died on 25 september in madrid. on 6 october 2014, a nurse who treated the priest tested positive for ebola. by 20 october 2014, the nurse seemed to have recovered after many days battling the disease in the hospital, with tests coming back negative. a doctor from senegal contracted ebola while working in sierra leone for the who, and was evacuated to germany at the end of august 2014. by 4 october 2014, it was announced he has recovered and returned to senegal. in late september, a doctor working for an international aid organization in sierra leone, was evacuated to switzerland after potentially being exposed. he later tested negative for the disease. in late september 2014, an american doctor working in sierra leone was evacuated to maryland, usa, after being exposed to ebola. "just because someone is exposed to the deadly virus, it doesn't necessarily mean they are infected", said anthony s. fauci, director of the national institute of allergy and infectious diseases at the nih. he was evacuated after a needle sticking accident and even developed a fever, but he was determined not to have ebola and was released the first week in october 2014. after being discharged he remained at home under medical observation, checking his temperature twice a day for 21 days. in early october, a ugandan doctor who contracted ebola while working in sierra leone was evacuated for treatment to frankfurt, germany. the doctor was working at lakaa hospital and flown out from lungi airport. on 6 october 2014, a female norwegian msf worker tested positive for ebola virus and was subsequently evacuated to norway. norwegian authorities reported that they had been granted a dose of the experimental biopharmaceutical drug zmab, a variant of zmapp. zmapp has previously been used on 3 liberian health workers, of which 2 survived. it was also used on 4