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Monday 19 January 2015

Mali declared Ebola Free

Mali's Health Minister, Ousmane Kone, has declared the West African nation free of Ebola on Sunday following a 42-day period without a new case of the deadly virus.

Mali recorded six deaths from Ebola, which, according to World Health Organization data, has killed more than 8,400 people in neighboring Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia in the worst epidemic of the viral hemorrhagic fever on record.
 


In his statement in which he thanked the country’s health workers and international partners for their work to halt the outbreak, , he said, "I declare on this day, Jan. 18, 2015, the end of  the Ebola epidemic in Mali."

Mali's last infected patient recovered and left hospital early last month. At one point health officials placed more than 300 persons on contact monitoring.

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.

In November Mali joined Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia on the list of countries facing additional screening on arriving in the United States.

Mali was also the first country in Africa to be used for trials of a new vaccine, which was tested on three health workers in October.

According to the latest figures, released by the World Health Organization last year, nearly 7,400 people have died as a result of last year's Ebola outbreak in west Africa.

 

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