Barack Obama reassures Ebola-wary US public as case reported in Mali

BARACK Obama has told Americans they must be “guided by the facts, not fear” when it comes to the deadly Ebola virus, as the disease spread to Mali.

A newspaper vendor holds up a copy of the New York Post in front of the Bellevue Hospital after it was confirmed that Craig Spencer had tested positive for Ebola.

PRESIDENT Barack Obama told Americans yesterday that they must be “guided by the facts, not fear” when it comes to the deadly Ebola virus, as he urged a sensible vigilance.

Also yesterday, Mali authorities scrambled to calm fears after Ebola claimed its first victim in the African country, a contagious toddler who took a 1000-kilometre bus journey before being treated and dying.

The World Health Organisation warned the situation in Mali was an “emergency”, and said in its latest Ebola situation report that the biggest outbreak on record has now killed 4922 people, the vast majority of them in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, with 10,141 cases reported.

“Patients can beat this disease. And we can beat this disease,” Mr Obama said in his weekly address to the nation, as he sought to reassure the Ebola-wary public that the disease does not spread easily.

The announcement came less than a week after the fiancee and almost 50 other people who had been in contact with a Liberian man, Thomas Eric Duncan, who died after becoming the first Ebola patient diagnosed in the US, emerged from 21 days of quarantine with no signs of illness.

“In Dallas, dozens of family, friends and others who had been in close contact with the first patient, Mr Duncan, were declared free of Ebola — a reminder that this disease is actually very hard to catch,” Mr Obama said.

“Others being monitored — including health care workers who were most at risk — were also declared Ebola-free,” Mr Obama said.

Meanwhile two American nurses who contracted Ebola while caring for Duncan were declared cured. One was healthy enough to leave the hospital and meet Mr Obama for a hug.

The good news for the nurses came as the city of New York was dealing with its first case after an American doctor, Craig Spencer, was diagnosed with Ebola last week after returning from Guinea, where he had helped tend the sick.

Dr Spencer, 33, who fell ill one week after returning from treating patients in Guinea, was said to be in a stable condition in isolation at the city’s Bellevue Hospital Centre.

His fiancee and two of his friends were in quarantine but appeared healthy, officials said.

Mr Obama said that New Yorkers had responded to the case correctly by continuing to “do what they do every day: jumping on buses, riding the subway, crowding into elevators, heading into work, gathering in parks”.

“That’s the spirit all of us can draw upon, as Americans, as we meet this challenge together,” Mr Obama said, adding that people “have to stay vigilant.”

“We have to be guided by the science — we have to be guided by the facts, not fear,” Mr Obama said.

“It’s important to remember that, of the seven Americans treated so far for Ebola — the five who contracted it in West Africa, plus the two nurses from Dallas — all seven have survived,” Mr Obama said.

The states of New York and New Jersey on Friday ordered a mandatory quarantine for medics who treated victims of Ebola in West Africa.

Mali President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita aimed to ease fears after the death of the two-year-old girl.

“We are doing everything to prevent panic and psychosis,” he said in an interview with French radio.

“Since the start of this epidemic, we in Mali took all measures to be safe, but we can never hermetically seal ourselves from this,” he said.

“Guinea is a neighbouring country, we have a common border that we have not closed and that we will not close.”

Mauritania meanwhile reinforced controls on its border with Mali, which led to a de facto closing of the border, according to local sources.

WHO said it was treating the situation in Mali as an “emergency” because the toddler had travelled for hundreds of kilometres on public transport with her grandmother while showing symptoms of the disease — meaning that she was contagious.

“The child’s symptomatic state during the bus journey is especially concerning, as it presented multiple opportunities for exposures,” the UN agency said.

The girl and her grandmother travelled by public transport from Keweni in Guinea through the towns of Kankan, Sigouri and Kouremale to the Malian capital, Bamako.

The Malian authorities were tracing everyone who had contact with the girl and her grandmother and more than 50 people had been placed under observation.

One tonne of medical supplies was dispatched from WHO stocks in Liberia to Bamako.

AFP