UN
Doctor who received Ebola case says virus still a threat to Mali
Mohammad, 41, is a taxi driver from Mali. As he winds through the narrow streets of Bamako’s bustling downtown, he explains how life never really changed for him during the Ebola outbreak.
“I still had customers. My business was still fine. The only thing that changed is this,” he says as he pulls out a small bottle of liquid sanitizer from his glove compartment. “They told me I should buy this for my passengers, but we don’t use it anymore.”
Two weeks ago, the World Health Organization declared the end of the Ebola Virus Disease epidemic in Mali after 42 days without a single new case. However, the risk of transmission from neighbouring countries remains high.
Dr. Hamet Pierre Toure may know that better than anyone else. An orthopedic surgeon at the Polyclinique Pasteur, he was one of the doctors on call when one of the country’s first Ebola cases arrived at their doorstep – even though he did not know it at the time.
“We received a cable on 10 November telling us that there was a patient we had treated that was traveling from Guinea who fell sick on 25 October, and he died two days later – we didn’t know what he died of – but that the rest of his traveling party were also starting to die of Ebola,” said Toure.
“People were starting to get scared. And at the same time, I had a doctor and a nurse who got sick. So when we confirmed that they were the ones who had directly treated that patient, we knew it was Ebola. Unfortunately, the nurse didn’t survive, but we immediately transferred the doctor to the Ebola treatment unit in Bamako.”
Health authorities then made the decision to close Polyclinique Pasteur for 21 days. Meanwhile, the World Health Organization and the Center for Disease Control oversaw the contact tracing of everyone who had visited the clinic. While no new cases emerged from the clinic in those 21 days, it still remains closed.
“For three months, we’ve had to refer people elsewhere, and sometimes there isn’t really anywhere else to go,” says Toure. “This is the biggest clinic in Bamako. They’re not thinking of people with other illnesses. There is much more here than just Ebola.”
While visibly upset that the clinic remains closed, Toure points out that complacency among Malians is a big threat to preventing future cases of Ebola in the country.
“The Minister said there is no more Ebola here, but as long as it exists in Guinea, in Liberia, in Sierra Leone, we need to be careful. To say that Ebola is finished is to push people to not take precautions anymore,” he says. “People are shaking hands again, there is no vigilance. We’re more prepared to handle new cases than before, but we need to always stay vigilant.”
The Ebola Virus Disease was first detected in Mali in October 2014. Before the epidemic was declared over on 18 January, the country had a total of eight cases with six deaths. The United Nations Mission for Ebola Emergency Response (UNMEER) maintains a presence in Bamako to continue coordinating the response and prevention efforts.
