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The
2014 Ebola epidemic ©Adrian Leung/John Saeki (AFP)
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Fearful of a surge of
Ebola cases, Mali placed nearly 600 people under surveillance, as the country
battles to contain the spread of the deadly tropical virus.
Malian officials met on
Monday to consider increasing security at its border following two confirmed
cases of Ebola due to infection in neighbouring Guinea.
US airports also
announced plans to begin enhanced screening of travellers from the west African
nation.
Mali has been scrambling
to prevent a minor outbreak from turning into a major crisis after the deaths
of a Guinean imam and the Malian nurse who treated him in the capital Bamako.
A friend who had visited
the imam in the Pasteur clinic also died of probable Ebola, and a two-year-old
child died from the disease last month in an unconnected case in the western
town of Kayes.
President Ibrahim
Boubacar Keita, on a visit to the imam's home village of Kouremale on the
Mali-Guinea border, urged locals to take all precautions in "the war"
against Ebola.
Health Minister Ousmane
Kone, who accompanied the president on the trip, said "577 people were
under daily observation", up from Sunday's figure of 442 people who were
being monitored for Ebola symptoms.
Teams of investigators
have been tracking health workers and scouring Bamako and the imam's village of
Kouremale, which straddles the Mali-Guinea border, for people who could have
been exposed.
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Malians
sit near a container used to wash hands in the village of Kouremale near the
border with Guinea, on November 17, 2014 ©Habibou Kouyate (AFP)
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The European Union on
Monday pledged 12 million euros (US$15 million) in funding to Mali, Senegal and
Ivory Coast amid growing fears Ebola could spread in the region.
The money would help the
countries "prepare for the risk of an Ebola outbreak through early
detection and public awareness measures".
The World Health
Organization announced on Friday that the outbreak -- almost entirely confined
to west Africa -- has killed 5,177 people and infected around 14,500 since
Ebola emerged in Guinea in December.
The death rate in west
Africa from the virus has reached around 70 percent, the World Health
Organization said Tuesday.
- Enhanced screening -
US authorities on Monday
began enhanced Ebola screenings of travellers from Mali, adding it to a list of
three other west African countries -- Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea -- where
the measures were already in place.
The US Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention, in a joint statement with the Department of
Homeland Security, said Mali was added to the list "because there have
been a number of confirmed cases of Ebola" there in recent days.
"A large number of
individuals may have been exposed to those cases," the statement said.
"The action is
warranted as a precaution due to the possibility that other cases of Ebola may
emerge in Mali in the coming days," the statement said.
The United States said
about 15-20 travellers depart Mali each day en route to the United States.
Those arriving will be
checked for fever and subject to the 21-day monitoring and movement protocols
already in effect for travellers from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.
Meanwhile, a cargo ship
on its way from Guinea to Ukraine reported it had a crew member with possible
symptoms of Ebola, and prepared to drop anchor off Athens so doctors could
board to examine him.
If confirmed, it would be
the first case in Greece of the hemorrhagic virus.
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