BAMAKO, Mali -- Mali's health minister says the West African country has confirmed its first case of Ebola.

The announcement made on Malian state television Thursday evening by Ousmane Kone said that the patient was a 2-year-old girl who had come from neighbouring Guinea.

The child was brought to a hospital in the Malian town of Kayes on Wednesday, and her blood sample tested positive for the virus.

Mali becomes the sixth West African country to report an Ebola case -- though nearly all the cases and deaths have occurred in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.

Senegal and Nigeria had imported cases though both have now been declared Ebola-free.

The World Health Organization says the disease has killed at least 4,877 people and infected 9,936.