Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has lifted the state of emergency imposed to control the Ebola epidemic that has killed more than 2,800 people in her country.  Johnson Sirleaf says it doesn’t mean that “the fight is over”, but the numbers of new infections is longer increasing.

The UN World Health Organization says the West African Ebola Epidemic has killed more than 5,160 people, almost all of them from Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone.  But with the hopeful news in Liberia, President Johnson Sirleaf says that night curfews would be reduced; weekly markets could take place across the country; and preparations are being made to reopen schools.

The Americans this week had completed the first of several 100-bed Ebola treatment centers, this one being located in Tubmanburg, 65-kilometers outside Monrovia.  Two other treatment units will be completed by the end of November.  But now that the infection rate is slowing down, American and Liberian officials are debating whether to build all 17 planned Ebola treatment centers or to shift that money into other programs to combat future outbreaks.

Meanwhile, a surgeon who contracted Ebola in Sierra Leone will be flown to the Nebraska Medical Center in America’s heartland for treatment.  Dr. Martin Salia is from Sierra Leone but is a permanent resident of the United States.  It’s unclear how he contracted Ebola.