The number of people, contacts with the 2-year-old child who died from Ebola in Mali Friday, being monitored by health officials has increased to 82, up from 43 last week, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) Tuesday.
The child arrived in Mali from Guinea accompanied by her grandmother. The child’s first contact with the country’s health services occurred on 20 October, when she was examined by a health care worker at Quartier Plateau in Kayes, a city in western Mali on the Senegal River.
The health-care worker referred the grandmother and child to the Fousseyni Daou Hospital, in the same city, where she was admitted to the pediatric ward on the following day, on 21 October. Symptoms on admission included a fever of 39°C, cough, bleeding from the nose, and blood in the stools. She was confirmed positive for Ebola on Oct. 23.
The child traveled extensively with her grandmother while clearly symptomatic. Travel was by public transport through Keweni, Kankan, Sigouri, and Kouremale to Bamako. The two stayed in Bamako for two hours before travelling on to Kayes.WHO says their were multiple opportunities for exposure.
Fortunately to date, no new cases of the disease have been reported.
World Health Organization spokesman Tarik Jasarevic said the grandmother was “doing OK so far”; however, he reminds us that it can take up to 21 days for Ebola to present itself in those infected.
The WHO and the Mali government have reacted quickly in an attempt to contain the viral disease.
Mali became the sixth West African country to report a case of the disease–Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Nigeria and Senegal are the others.
