Mali Becomes Sixth African Nation To Report An Ebola Case
The Ebola outbreak in Africa has reached another nation:
Mali became the sixth West African country to report a case of Ebola, opening a new front in the international effort to prevent the outbreak of the deadly viral infection from spreading further.
A 2-year-old girl who traveled from Kissidougou, Guinea, with her family to Mali was admitted to a hospital in Kayes yesterday, Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita’s office said in a statement. Test results confirmed she had Ebola. Ebola has infected almost 10,000 people this year, mostly in Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia, killing about 4,900. Senegal andNigeria, which also had cases, are now free of the virus.
Disease trackers now must trace everyone the girl came in contact with and monitor them for signs of infection. Mali was one of four countries the World Health Organization said this month was at highest risk of Ebola among a group of African nations the agency said needed to be prepared for cases. A WHO-led team has been in Mali this week helping to identify gaps in the country’s defenses.
Given that a two year old is unlikely to have had contact with anyone outside immediate family, hopefully Mali can get this under control and eradicated as easily as Nigeria and Senegal did.
Unless the epidemic in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone is checked, every country in the world is likely to encounter an Ebola case or two. Maybe a vaccine will prevent that from happening.
IMO Plan B should be that the developed countries pool their resources and take immediate action to check the epidemic by the same means that have been used successfully in Nigeria and Senegal. That’s not happening. At this point aid for the three stricken countries is mostly lip service.
@Dave Schuler: This is largely charabia.
What the bloody hell does “immediate action to check the epidemic by the same means that have been used successfully in Nigeria and Senegal. That’s not happening.” this mean? Other than I am A Concerned Chicagoan who frequently comments on things I know little about but write concernedly about?
Does it mean a massive intervention into the three effected countries?
Or does it mean a banal organisation of public health measures?
Basically it means a banal organization of public health measures at a rate and volume greater than the three countries can manage on their own.