The first patient to have been diagnosed by the Ebola virus in Mali has died, as confirmed by the government on Friday, October 24.
The 2-year-old girl, whose name remains withheld for privacy, contracted the virus while in Guinea where her mother had died of the same illness. She was then taken from her grandmother, and together they traveled toward Bamako before reaching Kayes, where she was taken to the hospital and diagnosed with the virus on Thursday.
The child had already been brought to the hospital as early as October 20 but was asked to be checked out in another health care facility and was later misdiagnosed to have a typhoid fever. By then, she was already suffering from nosebleeds.
Her case, however, has raised many concerns for the government, health workers, and World Health Organization as the child has already shown symptoms when she moved from place to place and was therefore contagious. Presently, Mali is working hard to trace every person the child and her grandmother may have come into contact with while they were in transit.
According to the health agency of the United Nations, the WHO is considering this Ebola case in Mali as an emergency. Being in transit while symptomatic provides many opportunities for exposure. Although the organization has announced they had already monitored more than 40 people, one of the government officials who prefer to remain anonymous mentioned that as many as 300 people may have been at risk.
Although Mali has placed very strict border controls, many from Guinea are still able to cross by following a bushy path.
In the meantime, the UN and volunteer organizations at the forefront such as Doctors without Borders were the first to respond to the Mali's Ebola case, chartering a plane carrying many needed medical supplies especially PPE (personal protective equipment) for the health workers.
