Ebola Outbreak Latest News 2015: Mali Declared Ebola-Free But Not 'Devoid Of Risk'

Mali's minister of health has announced that the country is now free of Ebola, as 42 days have passed since its last patient tested negative for the deadly virus.

Mali's health minister said in a statement that the country's last known Ebola patient tested negative for the virus Dec. 6, but clarified that "Mali isn't completely devoid of risk as long as this epidemic hasn't been conquered at our borders to the south," the L.A. Times reported.

The outbreak has infected more than 21,000 people, killing 8,429, data up to Jan. 11 collected by the World Health Organization showed.

Mali has eight Ebola cases, of which six resulted in death.

The disease entered Mali through a 2-year-old girl from Guinea. who later died Oct. 24. None of her contacts in Mali developed Ebola symptoms.

Meanwhile, Professor Peter Piot, who co-discovered the Ebola virus in 1976 and is now chief of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, warned that developed countries are "vulnerable" to epidemics like Ebola and will be in "deep trouble" if they fail to prepare for another outbreak.

Piot, who is set to address the World Economic Forum in Davos alongside heads of pharmaceutical firms and West African leaders, said the Western world should invest more in researching vaccines and asked global leaders to take a "long-term view," according to a report by BBC News on Tuesday.

"Our world is getting more vulnerable to big epidemics, because of population expansion, huge mobility and more intense contact between animals and people," he was quoted to have said.

"My concern is that when [the Ebola outbreak] is over we will just forget about it. We need to be better prepared and we need to invest in vaccines and treatment."

"It's like a fire brigade - you don't start to set up a fire brigade when some house is on fire."

He emphasized that Europe needs a force against infectious diseases that can be sent to countries outside its borders.

"There is always tension between the sovereignty of a country and the need to fight epidemics because they are a risk for the world as a whole... in economic terms, its a global public good."

Piot said that he never thought the Ebola virus "could affect entire nations, capital cities" because "after the first outbreak in 1976 we all thought this is a virus that is actually relatively easy to contain."

He also said that there was "neither a commercial incentive nor a public health rationale for dealing with Ebola" until the recent outbreak in West Africa.