Mali government confirms new Ebola case, hundreds monitored

Officials in Mali have said that a new case of Ebola has been confirmed and hundreds of people are now being monitored for signs of the deadly virus.

Reuters reported that a new case was confirmed in the country’s capital city of Bamako. The patient who has tested positive for Ebola is a friend of the nurse who was infected with and died from the disease earlier this month.

"Of two suspected cases tested, one was negative and the other positive. The latter was placed in an isolation center for intensive treatment," the health ministry said. In addition, another 310 contact cases are now being monitored.

The Ebola outbreak has killed over 5,400 people, mostly in the West African nations of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, over the past several months. The handful of cases confirmed in Mali have all been fatal and are believed to be linked to an elderly imam who was brought to the country from Guinea. The imam died after incorrectly being diagnosed with kidney problems.

NBC News noted that on Saturday, the first group of volunteers from Britain's National Health Service arrived in Sierra Leone to access the Ebola crisis there.

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