Ebola virus disease in Mali
Map of Mali
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| Cases in Mali | 8 (as of 18 January 2015[update]) |
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| Deaths | 6 |
Ebola virus disease in Mali occurred in October 2014, leading to concern about the possibility of an outbreak of Ebola in Mali. A child was brought from Guinea and died in the northwestern city of Kayes. Mali contact traced over 100 people who had contact with the child; tracing was completed in mid-November with no further cases discovered. In November, a second unrelated outbreak occurred in Mali's capital city, Bamako. Several people at a clinic are thought to have been infected by a man traveling from Guinea. On January 18 Mali was declared Ebola-free after 42 days with no new cases. There had been a cumulative total of eight cases with six deaths.
As of late 2014, the Ebola virus epidemic in Mali's southern neighbors Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea has led to thousands of deaths. Mali, a country of about 16.5 million people, was ranked as one of the top four countries at risk for an outbreak prior to its first reported case.
In late October 2014, a two-year-old girl died from Ebola in the city of Kayes. The child, later identified as Fanta Kone, was admitted to hospital on 21 October where she tested positive for typhoid. Further tests confirmed Ebola. The child, her grandmother, uncle, and five-year-old sister arrived in Bamako after traveling roughly 1000 km (600 miles) from Guinea, where Kone's father had died. They then traveled to Kayes by bus.
Fanta Kone's father, a Red Cross worker, assisted at a private medical clinic in Beyla that was owned and run by his father, Fanta's paternal grandfather. It is suspected that he may have contracted Ebola from a farmer from another village, who sought treatment at the clinic and was accompanied by his two daughters. The farmer died on 12 September, and his daughters on 23 September. After falling ill in late September, Fanta's father traveled to his native village of Sokodougou, 70 kilometres away, where he died on 3 October. By 20 October, the paternal grandfather, his wife, and two sons had also died, with some deaths confirmed to have been from Ebola disease. Fanta's mother and 3-month-old sibling remain disease-free and are residing in Guinea during a 40-day mourning period before joining the rest of her family in Mali.
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