BAMAKO, Mali, Jan. 18 (UPI) -- Mali's minister of health has declared the country free of the Ebola virus after 42 days passed without a new case.
"Since December 6, 2014, the date on which the last inpatient at the treatment center in Bamako was tested negative, no other confirmed cases of illness from Ebola virus have been recorded in our country," Ousmane Kone said in a statement. "Also, after 42 days of surveillance without confirmed cases of illness from Ebola virus, in accordance with the guidelines of international health regulations, I declare this day, January 18, 2015, the end of the epidemic of Ebola virus in Mali."
In addition, according to UN figures, Sierra Leone and Guinea recorded their lowest number of confirmed cases of the disease since August, while Liberia experienced its lowest weekly total since June, the BBC reports. The three countries constitute areas worst hit by the lethal virus.
The World Health Organization declared the Democratic Republic of the Congo free of Ebola in late Nov. 2014, making the same declaration about Senegal a month earlier.
Countries must not have any new cases of Ebola for two consecutive incubation periods, or 42 days, in order to be declared free of the virus.
Mali recorded its first Ebola case in Oct. 2014: a 2-year-old girl who later died after contracting the virus in Guinea. In all, eight people in Mali tested positive for the virus, and six died.
Since it began in late 2013, the Ebola outbreak in Africa has infected over 21,000 people and killed nearly 8,500, according to the WHO.
