Ebola: West African Nation Declared Free

Medic-ALL (01:18:2015) Healthcare News-

Ebola virus stopped in yet another West African Country

The Government of the West African nation, Mali today declared the country free of the deadly Ebola virus following a 42-day period without a new case of the disease.

Mali's Health Minister Ousmane Koné declared this in a statement in which he thanked the country's health workers and international partners for their work which helped to see a halt to the outbreak.

Countries must report no new cases for 42 days - or two incubation periods of 21 days - to be declared Ebola-free.

Mali recorded a total of seven deaths caused by the Ebola outbreak that began just over a year ago

According to World Health Organization (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 worldwide.

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 girlfrom Guinea died in October. It was close to being declared Ebola free in November before a second wave of infections.

The country now joins other West African countries Nigeria and Senegal who had been declared Ebola-free in the last couple of months.

Medic-ALL.Inc 2015

Ref: BBC, WHO