Mali has confirmed its first case of Ebola, making it the sixth West African country to be affected by the worst epidemic of the virus in history.
Malian Health Minister Ousmane Kone said the patient, a 2-year-old girl, tested positive for the virus after she arrived at a hospital in the western town of Kayes on Wednesday, the BBC reported.
The child traveled to Mali with relatives following the death of her mother in Guinea, which along with Sierra Leone and Liberia have seen the most cases - and the most deaths - from Ebola since March. It is not clear if the patient's mother died of Ebola.
Senegal and Nigeria both had cases of Ebola in the past few months but the World Health Organization has since declared both countries free of the virus.
A total of 43 people who have been in contact with the girl have now been quarantined, including 10 health care workers, the BBC reported.
WHO has sent three experts to help Mali health officials contain the outbreak. Four more are expected to arrive in the next few days, WHO spokeswoman Fadela Chaib told the BBC.
WHO officials also said the first of hundreds of vaccines for Ebola, for which there is no official cure, will be available as soon as January 2015, according to the BBC.
Normally it takes years to develop and properly test a vaccine. But because of the scale of the epidemic - which has killed almost 5,000 people and infected twice as many - officials have shortened the time frame to a matter of weeks.
One such potential vaccine, developed by GlaxoSmithKline, is currently being tested in Mali, the U.S. and the U.K. Results for the vaccine are expected in December.
