After months of almost exclusively bad news regarding Ebola, Nigeria has offered a brief respite, as the country has been declared free of the deadly virus.

Nigeria's first case of Ebola came when a Liberian-American diplomat turned up in the capital city of Lagos infected with the disease, according to a report from Reuters. Doctor Ameyo Adadevoh isolated the diplomat, Patrick Sawyer, in her hospital to prevent the virus from spreading.

About 300 people that had been in contact with Sawyer also were monitored and some were isolated. Several people were infected, and Adadevoh later died from the disease.

Without those steps from the beginning, the situation in Nigeria could be more similar to West African neighbors Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, where more than 4,500 people have died from Ebola.

"This is a spectacular success story," Rui Gama Vaz of the World Health Organization said. "It shows that Ebola can be contained, but we must be clear that we have only won a battle, the war will only end when West Africa is also declared free of Ebola."

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which has been involved in managing the outbreak, said officials and volunteers in Nigeria reached more than 26,000 households of people living around the contacts of the Ebola patients.

"Nigeria was not really prepared for the outbreak, but the swift response from the federal government, state governments (and) international organizations ... was essential," said Samuel Matoka, Ebola operations manager in Nigeria for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

Nigeria's quick response to Ebola offers a stark contrast to the efforts seen in the infected West African countries, especially Liberia, which has one of the lowest ratios of doctors to citizens in the entire world.

Those countries didn't have the health systems or resources needed to battle Ebola and have been forced to rely on increasing international response to combat the virus. The U.S. has pledged $300 million to fight the disease, while European countries have promised around $600 million, BBC reported.