Mali is officially free of the Ebola virus, government authorities and the World Health Organization announced on Sunday.
Forty-two days have passed since the country’s last potential Ebola case tested negative on December 6 2014. Ousmane Kone, Mali’s minister of health, declared the outbreak over on Sunday, but said the public should remain vigilant as the risk of Ebola in neighboring countries remains.
Mali saw its first case of Ebola in October after a two-year-old girl contracted the disease in Guinea, one of the three countries worst-hit by the virus. She began showing symptoms typical of the disease, including bleeding from the nose and shedding bodily fluids, on a 600-mile bus journey back to Mali. Afterwards, the virus spread, infecting eight people and killing six.
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