Mali's government and the United Nations
have declared the West African nation free of
Ebola following a 42-day period without a new
case of the deadly virus.
"I declare on this day, January 18, 2015, the
end of the end of the Ebola epidemic in Mali,"
Ousmane Koné said in a statement in which
he thanked the country's health workers and
international partners for their work to halt
the outbreak.
The country "had come out" of the epidemic,
confirmed Ibrahima Soce Fall, the head of the
Malian office of the United Nations Mission
for Ebola Emergency Response (UNMEER).
Countries must report no new cases for 42
days - or two incubation periods of 21 days -
to be declared Ebola-free.
Mali recorded seven deaths caused by the
Ebola outbreak that began just over a year
ago
According to World Health Organisation (WHO)
data the worst epidemic of the viral
haemorrhagic fever on record has killed more
than 8,400 people, mostly in neighbouring
Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.
At least 21,296 people have so far been
infected with the virus, the WHO has said,
Mali's last infected patient recovered and left
hospital early last month. At one point health
officials had been monitoring more than 300
contact cases.
Mali became the sixth West African country to
record a case of Ebola when a two-year-old
girl from Guinea died in October. It was close
to being declared Ebola free in November
before a second wave of infections.
No comments: