Mali’s health minister says the west African country has confirmed its first case of Ebola. In the announcement on Malian state television, Ousmane Kone said that the patient was a two-year-old girl who had come from neighbouring Guinea.
The child was brought to a hospital in the Malian town of Kayes on Wednesday, and her blood sample tested positive for the virus.
If the girl’s condition is confirmed, Mali will become the sixth west African country to report an Ebola case – though nearly all cases and all deaths have occurred in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. Senegal and Nigeria had imported cases, but both have since been declared Ebola-free.
According to the World Health Organisation, the disease has killed at least 4,877 people and infected 9,936.