The Malian government and the
United Nations on Sunday
declared the country free of Ebola
after 42 days without any new
cases of the deadly virus.
Health Minister Ousmane Kone
said no confirmed cases had been
registered since December 6
when the last Ebola patient had
tested negative.
“I declare this day… the end of
the epidemic of the Ebola virus in
Mali,” he said in a statement
broadcast on state television
ORTM.
The west African country “had
come out” of the epidemic,
Ibrahima Soce Fall, the head of
the Malian office of the United
Nations Mission for Ebola
Emergency Response (UNMEER),
confirmed.
In accordance with World Health
Organization recommendations,
the spread of the Ebola virus
could be declared over after 42
days without any new cases being
recorded, he said in a separate
statement.
Kone saluted the Malian
authorities and the different
players in the anti-Ebola fight for
“weeks of intense work” that led
to the result.
He also praised Mali’s health
workers and the country’s
partners for their efforts while
urging that basic hygiene and
protective behaviour measures be
kept up.
Seven people died of Ebola in
Mali. The first fatality in October
was a two-year-old girl brought
from neighbouring Guinea to stay
with relatives.
Shortly afterwards, a Muslim
cleric, also from Guinea, died in
the capital Bamako. He
transmitted the virus, directly or
indirectly, to seven other people,
five of whom died.
The last patient to be treated for
Ebola in Mali made a full recovery
and was discharged from hospital
in early December.