United Nations and government declares Mali Ebola-free

The Malian government and the United Nations on Sunday declared the country free of Ebola after 42 days without any new cases of the deadly virus. Health Minister Ousmane Kone said no confirmed cases had been registered since December 6 when the last Ebola patient had tested negative. The west African country “had come out” of the epidemic, Ibrahima Soce Fall, the head of the Malian office of the United Nations Mission for Ebola Emergency Response (UNMEER), confirmed.

I declare this day… the end of the epidemic of the Ebola virus in Mali.

Health Minister Ousmane Kone said in a statement broadcast on state television ORTM

In accordance with World Health Organization recommendations, the spread of the Ebola virus could be declared over after 42 days without any new cases being recorded, he said in a separate statement. Kone saluted the Malian authorities and the different players in the anti-Ebola fight for “weeks of intense work” that led to the result. A total 21,296 people have so far been infected with Ebola since the world’s worst-ever outbreak began just over a year ago, and 8,429 of them have died, according to the latest figures from the World Health Organization.

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