No Ebola Found in Quarantined Guinean Man: Brazil

In Brazil, a Guinean man quarantined out of fear that he was infected with Ebola does not have the deadly disease, health officials announced after medical test results came in.

"The health ministry says that diagnostic testing on the patient suspected of being infected with the Ebola virus is negative," a government statement said.

"He's in good condition, and does not have a fever," said the statement adding, however, that he remains in isolation.

The 47-year-old man had arrived from Africa last month. He checked into a clinic in the town of Cascavel complaining of fever on Wednesday.

On Friday was taken in an air force plane from the southern state of Parana to the National Infectious Disease Institute (Fiocruz) in Rio de Janeiro.

His case was considered suspect after he developed a fever within the incubation period for Ebola after arriving from one of a handful of African countries battling an outbreak of the illness.

Symptoms of Ebola can resemble other diseases found frequently in Brazil and Africa, including malaria.

Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone have been the countries hardest hit by the Ebola outbreak that erupted at the beginning of the year, killing nearly 4,000 people so far -- roughly half of those infected.

The disease causes fever, diarrhoea, vomiting and in some cases internal and external bleeding.

It is spread by contact and the exchange of bodily fluids.

Source: AFP