Mali confirmed its first case of Ebola on Thursday, becoming the
sixth West African country to be touched by the worst outbreak on record
of the haemorrhagic fever, which has killed nearly 4,900 people.
Mali’s
Health Minister Ousmane Kone told state television that the patient in
the western town of Kayes was a two-year-old girl who had recently
arrived from neighbouring Guinea, where the outbreak began.
“The condition of the girl, according to our services, is improving
thanks to her rapid treatment,” the minister told state television.
A health ministry official, who asked not to be identified, said
the girl’s mother died in Guinea a few weeks ago and the baby was
brought by relatives to the Malian capital Bamako, where she stayed for
10 days in the Bagadadji neighbourhood before heading to Kayes.
A ministry statement said the girl, who came from the Guinean town
of Kissidougou, was admitted at the Fousseyni Daou hospital in Kayes on
Wednesday night, where she was promptly tested for Ebola.
People who came into contact with the patient in Kayes have been
identified and placed under watch, the minister said, but he appealed to
any person who believed they may have had contact with the girl to step
forward.
The vast majority of the deaths and nearly 10,000 cases of the
disease have been in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, according to the
World Health Organization (WHO).
Small outbreaks also spread to Senegal and Nigeria, Africa’s most
populous country, but they have since been declared Ebola-free by the
WHO, Reuters says.
The official numbers are known to be under-reported and the true death toll may be three times as much, the WHO said this week.
0 comments:
Post a Comment