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National Action Plan For
Ebola Eradication (Image courtesy of www.limkokwing.net)
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Mali’s government and the
United Nations have declared the West African nation free of Ebola following a
42-day period without a new case of the deadly virus, according to Aljazeera.
“I declare on this day,
January 18, 2015, the end of the end of the Ebola epidemic in Mali,” Ousmane
Koné said in a statement in which he thanked the country’s health workers and
international partners for their work to halt the outbreak.
The country “had come out”
of the epidemic, confirmed Ibrahima Soce Fall, the head of the Malian
office of the United Nations Mission for Ebola Emergency Response
(UNMEER).
Countries must report no
new cases for 42 days – or two incubation periods of 21 days – to be declared
Ebola-free.
Mali recorded 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, the WHO has said.
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 girl from Guinea died in
October. It was close to being declared Ebola free in November before a second
wave of infections.
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