Fewer than 100 cases of Ebola have been reported in west Africa in the last week, according to the World Health Organisation, which says the outbreak has now effectively moved into the endgame.
In a highly critical report on Monday, marking the first anniversary of the official outbreak in west Africa, the charity said the governments of Guinea and Sierra Leone obstructed the early response and contributed to the loss of life.
This article has been amended to make clear that the MSF report marks the first anniversary of the date of the official outbreak of Ebola in west Africa.
The Sierra Leone ministry of health refused to share data in the early outbreak and instructed the WHO to report only lab-confirmed deaths, thereby excluding the "probable" and "suspect" cases that could not be tested because of the lack of testing facilities.
But as long as there are cases, there is the possibility of spread to a new region, triggering another outbreak.
Legend has it that the outbreak then died out.
When a child dies of neglect or abuse, the local authority is accused of incompetence and negligence; if there is an outbreak of foot and mouth disease, claims about inadequate precautions are heard; former employees of companies which have collapsed during the recession demand to know why more has not been done to save their jobs.
Acclaimed science writer and explorer David Quammen first came near the virus while he was traveling in the jungles of Gabon, accompanied by local men whose village had been devastated by a recent outbreak.
The outbreak in Bombali was reportedly linked to a cluster of cases in the Aberdeen fishing community in Freetown, and the WHO said efforts were under way to track more than 2,000 contacts associated with that cluster.
The outlook was less positive in the other countries affected by the outbreak, Guinea and Sierra Leone, which jointly reported 132 new confirmed cases last week.
Since the outbreak began in December 2013, 23,969 people in nine countries have been infected with the virus, and 9,807 of them have died, according to the latest figures.
