Ebola issues: Mali says it has no more cases

Mali's health minister says the country is now
free of the Ebola virus, after 42 days without a
new case of the disease.
"I declare this day... the end of the epidemic of
the Ebola virus in Mali," said Ousmane Kone.
The last Ebola-infected patient in Mali recovered
and left hospital in early December.
Latest figures show the three West African
countries worst affected have all seen a decline
in new Ebola cases.
Sierra Leone and Guinea both recorded the
lowest weekly total of confirmed Ebola cases
since August, according to UN figures on
Thursday.
Liberia, which reported no new cases on two
days last week, had its lowest weekly total since
June.
The overall death toll has reached 8,429 with
21,296 cases so far.
Mali recorded its first case of Ebola in October,
when a two-year-old from Guinea fell ill and died.
At its worst, there were 300 contact cases under
investigation in the country.
But the country has now "come out" of the
epidemic, said Ibrahima Soce Fall, the head of
the Malian office of the United Nations Mission
for Ebola Emergency Response (UMEER).
The incubation period for Ebola is 21 days, and
countries must be free of new cases for two
consecutive incubation periods, 42 days, to be
declared free of the virus.