Mali, West African neighbours to Ebola stricken Guinea, has reported its first case of Ebola late Thursday, joining a growing international list of countries to be struck by the deadly virus.

The newly diagnosed case is a two year old child who had come into the country fromthe neighbouring country Guinea, where the Ebola epidemic began last year. The child was tested for the virus on Wednesday at a hospital in the Malian town of Kayes, only about 600 kilometers from the capital of Bamako.

But Mali has moved quickly to curb any possible apprehension or hostility by announcing that it has placed all suspected cases under monitoring.

“The child infected with Ebola, and all the people who came in contact with her have been identified and taken care of” the health Minister Ousmane Kone said.

Mali had longed been tipped as one of the most vulnerable countries, given its porous border with Guinea. Others bordering Guinea are Senegal, Mali, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Ivory Coast.  Senegal had imported Ebola from Guinea just like the reported case in Mali.

According to the World Health Organisation, Ebola has infected about 9,936 people and killed over 4,877 across West African hit Ebola Countries, and almost all the cases and deaths have occurred in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

“The world has never seen a serious, grave and complex crisis of this nature where people are dying every day with unsafe burial practices,” An internal U.N. World Health Organization report obtained by The Associated Press said.