 |
|
Cases continue to rise rapidly in
Sierra Leone - one of the countries worst hit by the deadly virus
|
A Malian nurse has died
of Ebola, the second confirmed death from the disease in the country.
The BBC carries the following details:
Officials say the nurse
had treated a man who arrived from Guinea at the Pasteur Clinic in Bamako, and
the clinic was now in quarantine.
The latest case is unrelated
to the first, when a two-year-old girl died from the disease in late October.
Nearly 5,000 people have
been killed in the West African outbreak, mostly in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra
Leone.
The World Health
Organization (WHO) has declared the outbreak a global health emergency.
The new case in Mali
comes a day after the WHO confirmed the release from quarantine of 25 of 100
people who were thought to have come into contact with the two-year-old girl
who died on 24 October.
The toddler's case
alarmed the authorities in Mali after it was found she had displayed symptoms
whilst travelling through the country by bus, including the capital Bamako, on
her return from neighbouring Guinea.
Ebola was first
identified in Guinea in March, before it spread to neighbouring Liberia and
Sierra Leone. The WHO says there are now more than 13,240 confirmed, suspected
and probable cases, almost all in these countries.
Cases have also emerged,
though on a much smaller scale, in Nigeria, Senegal, Spain and the US, as well
as in Mali.
 |
|
Ebola is transferred through direct
contact with the bodily fluids of infected people
|
Separately on Tuesday, it
was confirmed that Morocco would no longer host the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations
because of its fears over the Ebola outbreak.
In other developments:
- Sierra Leone is offering US$5,000 in compensation to the families of health workers who have died as a result of treating Ebola patients
- Local leaders of a village in Guinea have gone on hunger strike in protest against the military's presence there after an Ebola awareness team was killed in September
- The
last known person in the US with Ebola, doctor Craig Spencer, has recovered and
been released from hospital
Mali launched an
emergency response in conjunction with the WHO when the girl's situation came
to light. Her family were among those released from quarantine on Monday.
Health department
spokesman Markatie Daou said around 50 people were still under observation in
Kayes, western Mali, and would be released in a week if they continued to
display no symptoms.
Meanwhile, the virus is
continuing to spread in Sierra Leone, with almost 300 new infections recorded
in the last three days .
No comments:
Post a Comment