Kampala (dpa) - The World Health Organization (WHO) has pulled its staff out of a part of Uganda hit by Ebola disease, concluding that the epidemic is over after having killed 173 people since October.

"There were five scientists and they left on Thursday (February 15). The epidemic is over but a formal declaration is awaited," the WHO spokesman in Kampala, Ben Ssensasi, said in a telephone interview Saturday. "They were actually doing nothing."

The formal declaration that Uganda is free of Ebola would be made jointly with the Ugandan Health Ministry on February 27. The ministry announced on February 6 that if no new case of Ebola were recorded in Gulu district within 21 days, Uganda would be free of the disease.

Teams of scientists from all over the world converged on Uganda late last year when the mysterious disease, which causes bleeding from every orifice, broke out. It was identified as Ebola-Sudan.

In all, 426 people were recorded as infected but more than half survived. The last death was on January 4.

(From Sohu)