According to a report from President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita of Mali, they have no more confirmed cases of Ebola after the last patient who had the virus was cured. All in all, they registered eight cases of Ebola Virus Disease, wherein seven of them were positive for the virus while the other one was a probable case.
Six of the confirmed cases have died, as reported by NBC News. The virus was deemed to spread from their neighbor country, Guinea, which was one of the worst ravaged countries affected by Ebola.
The World Health Organization confirmed this week that Mali can now be considered Ebola free. Also, approximately 285 people who were in contact with the confirmed cases are being monitored and none of them have shown symptoms of the disease.
President Keita gave a statement about the Ebola state of the country in a summit in Senegal last Saturday. "At this moment, there are no cases of infection," Keita said. "The suspected case turned out to be negative and the day before yesterday we had the good news of the first cured case of Ebola so I can now say zero cases in Mali."
According to the latest data from the World Health Organization, there are an estimated 16,000 cases of Ebola recorded in eight countries since its start late 2013. The death toll has reached 5,689 and most of them are from the three most affected countries such as Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.
The President hopes that their country will be Ebola-free by Christmas. However, the opposite is happening in other countries specifically Sierra Leone that has incurred a growing rate of Ebola infections.
In related news, Sierra Leone is in danger because of the inconsistent practice of safe and healthy burial according to The Associated Press. However, a light of hope is emerging as a trial of vaccines against Ebola is promising.
