Mali scrambled Wednesday to prevent a major Ebola epidemic after the deaths of an Islamic cleric and a nurse, as the official death toll in the worst epidemic in history passed 5,000.
The case has dashed optimism that Mali was free of the highly-infectious pathogen and caused alarm in the capital Bamako, where the imam was washed by mourners at a mosque after his death.
It came as the World Health Organization (WHO) announced that the outbreak — almost entirely confined to west Africa — had passed a gruesome landmark, with 5,160 deaths from around 14,000 cases since Ebola emerged in Guinea in December.
The WHO and aid organizations have frequently pointed out that the real count of cases and deaths could be much higher, with infections hidden from the authorities skewing the statistics.
In Mali, the latest country to see Ebola infections, Bamako’s Pasteur clinic has been quarantined, with around 30 people trapped inside, including medical staff, patients and 15 African soldiers from the United Nations mission in Mali.
Teams of investigators are tracing health workers, scouring the capital and the imam’s home district in northeastern Guinea for scores of people who could have been exposed.
The deaths have raised fears of widespread contamination as they were unrelated to Mali’s only other confirmed fatality, a two-year-old girl who had also arrived from Guinea in October.
A doctor at the clinic is thought to have contracted the virus and is under observation outside the capital, the clinic said.
A friend who visited the imam has also died of probable Ebola, the World Health Organization (WHO) said.
Mali’s health ministry called for calm on Wednesday, as it led a huge cross-border operation to stem the contagion.
The WHO said the 70-year-old cleric, named as Goika Sekou from a village on Guinea’s porous border with Mali, fell sick and was transferred via several treatment centres to the Pasteur clinic.
– ‘Many mourners at risk’ –
He had travelled to Bamako by car with four family members — all of whom have since got sick or died at home in Guinea.
Multiple lab tests were performed, the WHO said, but crucially not for Ebola, and he died of kidney failure on October 27.
The imam’s body was transported to a mosque in Bamako for a ritual washing ceremony before being returned to Guinea for burial in his home village.
Traditional African funeral rites are considered one of the main causes of Ebola spreading, as it is transmitted through bodily fluids and those who have recently died are particularly infectious.
“Although these events are still under investigation, WHO staff assume that many mourners attended the ceremonies,” the agency said.
Although the imam cannot now be tested, his first wife died of an undiagnosed disease last week while his second wife and brother are sick at an Ebola treatment centre in southern Guinea where his son tested positive for the virus on Tuesday.
All were with him on the car journey to Bamako, the WHO said, adding that his daughter died in Guinea on Monday.
The WHO said 28 health care workers who had contact with the imam at the Pasteur clinic had been identified and were under observation.
A second team of investigators is scouring Bamako, including the mosque, for possible infections while WHO staff in Guinea trace the man’s family history.
The nurse who died treating Sekou, identified by family as 25-year-old Saliou Diarra, was the first Malian resident to be confirmed as an Ebola victim.
– Sierra Leone cases ‘skyrocketing’ –
– Sierra Leone cases ‘skyrocketing’ –
Mali’s first case, two-year-old Fanta Conte, died after travelling to the western town of Kayes 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 Bamako, visiting relatives in a house of 25 people.
Mali had announced this week that it was planning the release of more than 100 people who may have had contact with the girl, and voiced confidence that it had beaten Ebola.
The virus is estimated to have killed around 70 percent of its victims, often shutting down their organs and causing unstoppable bleeding.
Ebola emerged in Guinea in December, spreading to neighbouring Liberia and then Sierra Leone, infecting at least 13,000 people.
