Liberia has announced a dramatic drop in new Ebola infections as Mali prepared to lift quarantine restrictions on dozens of people put at risk of exposure to the deadly virus.
Liberian assistant health minister Tolbert Nyenswah said new cases had dropped from a daily peak of more than 500 to around 50, confirming tentative announcements by experts worldwide of an apparent slowdown in the epidemic.
"It's not the number of Ebola cases we were reporting two months ago... The numbers of cases are reducing," he told AFP late yesterday, adding however that there were still new cases emerging across the country.
The largest Ebola outbreak on record has killed some 5,000 people, with Liberia hit hardest and the contagion still raging in neighbouring Sierra Leone and Guinea.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) said late yesterday that it had released from isolation 25 of more than 100 people thought to have come into contact with Mali's sole case.
The victim, a two-year-old girl from Guinea, was diagnosed with Ebola after journeying to the western town of Kayes on October 23 and died the following day.
The toddler had travelled by bus and taxi with her grandmother, sister and uncle, making frequent stops on a trip of more than 1,200 kilometres (750 miles).
They also spent two hours in the capital, Bamako, visiting relatives in a house of 25 people.
When Malian authorities became aware of the case, they mounted an emergency response helped by the WHO, US experts and several aid organisations, identifying 108 contacts.
These included fellow bus passengers found as far away as France and Senegal, and 33 health care workers, the WHO said in a statement.
"Of the 108 contacts, 25 have been followed for 21 days and have been released from the surveillance system," it added.
"Seventy-nine contacts were at the hospital where the child was treated and in the Kayes community. All have been monitored.
"To date, no one has shown signs of Ebola or tested positive for the disease."
Abdoulaye Nene Coulibaly, a doctor in the medical team sent to lead the response, said everyone in isolation in Kayes would be released today if they were still showing no symptoms.
"The grandmother of the deceased child is doing well. Everyone else too," he told AFP.
"We took every precaution to assist those under observation, and in reality all the way through the girl's journey contagion risks were very low.
