Mali has gone through a 42-day period without a new case of Ebola, officially making it an Ebola-free nation.
Mali's health minister, Ousmane Kone, said Sunday that the West African nation is Ebola-free, according to NBC News. He thanked the country's health workers and international partners for their work to end the outbreak.
"I declare on this day, Jan. 18, 2015, the end of the Ebola epidemic in Mali," Kone said.
Mali's last infected patient recovered and left the hospital in December. Health officials were monitoring more than 300 contact cases, The Huffington Post reported. Ebola killed six people in Mali, but killed more than 8,400 people in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, according to the World Health Organization.
A two-year-old girl from Guinea brought the lethal virus to Mali. She died in October. Health officials wanted to declare Mali Ebola-free in November, but a second wave of infections hit Mali.
In order to be declared Ebola-free, a country must report no new cases for 42 days, or two incubation periods of 21 days, Al Jazeera reported. The WHO said at least 21,296 people have been infected with the virus thus far.
The WHO said this is the worst epidemic of the viral hemorrhagic fever on record to hit West Africa, according to NBC News.
