WATER laced with salt and sugar, and gallons of the nasty-tasting stuff.

    Doctors who survived Ebola in Nigeria credited heavy doses of fluids with saving their lives as the World Health Organization declared the country Ebola-free on Monday, a rare victory in the battle against the disease that is ravaging West Africa.

    The announcement came 42 days — twice the incubation period — since the last case in Nigeria tested negative.

    It is a relief to WHO officials, who had feared the outbreak would be uncontrollable if it spread to Nigeria’s lawless northeast.

    In the end, Nigeria — the most populous country in Africa, with 160 million people — had just 20 cases, including eight deaths, a lower death rate than the 70 percent seen elsewhere across the stricken region.

    Officials were crediting strong tracking and isolation of people exposed to the virus, and aggressive rehydration of infected patients to counter the effects of vomiting, diarrhea and other symptoms.

    Nigeria’s containment of Ebola is a “spectacular success story,” said Rui Gama Vaz, WHO director for Nigeria.

    Some 9,000 people have been infected with Ebola, and about 4,500 have died, mostly in hard-hit Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia, with the number of cases expected to increase exponentially in the coming weeks.(SD-Agencies)