File Photo: Medical staff members wear protective Ebola suits. (Agence France-Presse)
The United States on Saturday congratulated Liberia for stamping out its Ebola outbreak but warned the region could not rest until the disease was eradicated in neighboring Sierra Leone and Guinea.
The World Health Organization earlier declared Liberia Ebola-free, hailing the "monumental" achievement in the west African country where the virus has killed more than 4,700 people.
"We congratulate the people of Liberia on reaching this important marker, and once again pledge our commitment to ending the Ebola outbreak in West Africa and helping to rebuild Liberia and other affected nations," White House spokesman Josh Earnest said in a statement.
"While this milestone is important, the world must not forget that the Ebola outbreak still persists in neighboring Sierra Leone and Guinea.
"We must not let down our guard until the entire region reaches and stays at zero Ebola cases."
Last year's Ebola outbreak was the worst in history, leaving 11,000 dead across the affected region before a concerted international aid effort began to turn the tide of the disease.
The West was accused of ignoring the crisis early on and then treating Liberia and its neighbors as pariahs, blocking flights and quarantining returning health workers after the first-ever domestic infections outside of Africa, in the US and Spain.