Two countries have managed to control all know Ebola exposures within their borders – Mali, in West Africa, and the United States.  In Mali’s case, one of the world’s poorest countries managed to do the job with a quick, positive response – and no drama.

“I’m actually feeling very good right now,” said Dr. Rana Hajjeh of the US Centers for Disease Control advisory team that helped Malian health officials.  “We feel reassured that most of the danger is over.”

Last month, a grandmother who only wanted the best for her grandchildren whisked two little girls, aged 2 and 5, out of Guinea and north across the border to Mali.  The younger child, identified as Fanta Conde, died of Ebola disease on 24 October.  The Malians acted quickly, and reasonably.  They didn’t close the border out of panic; that would have violated the Mandingo tradition of “diatiguiya”, the belief that hospitality to friends and even strangers is obligatory. 

But officials did retrace the family’s path, going as far as to chase down the bus they took on the 700-mile journey and disinfecting it.  So far, no one who touched or treated little Fanta has gotten sick.  The government has delivered food to them throughout the 21-day quarantine.  Of those 41 people, some are being released from quarantine on Tuesday, and the rest should be released by Friday.

Mali joins Nigeria and Senegal as countries that successfully contained the introduction of Ebola, and stopped it before the epidemic could spread.

In the United States, Dr. Craig Spencer was declared free from the virus.  The 33-year old had volunteered with Medecins Sans Frontieres to fight the West African Ebola Epidemic, and returned to his home in New York City.  But he later experienced a high fever and immediately reported himself to health officials.  After treatment in isolation, Spencer got sprung on Monday.

But the case caused an unreasonable panic in the biggest city of the wealthiest country on earth, especially in the corporate media.  It spread and with the case of Kaci Hickox, another brave volunteer nurse who never showed symptoms of the disease and consistently tested negative for the virus.  To quell rumblings from conservative groups, Governors announced ill-conceived policies of forced quarantines of all health care workers returning to America from the West African Epidemic.  After the effective detention of Hickox in a tent outside a hospital in new Jersey with no shower and a portable latrine, and later attempts to quarantine the perfectly healthy woman in her home in Maine, the courts intervened and the governors backed down.

Kaci Hickox completed her 21-day monitoring period on Monday.  She’s planning to travel around the east coast visiting relatives, and also plans to move away from Maine and the state’s idiot conservative governor who tried to keep her in detention for no reason.