Suspected Ebola patient tests negative in Sweden
STOCKHOLM (AFP) – A man suspected of being infected with the deadly Ebola virus ravaging several African countries tested negative in Sweden on Monday, local health officials said.
“We analysed the tests and can say there is no sign whatsoever that the patient was suffering from Ebola,” a statement said.
The man, a foreign national who travelled to Sweden from an Ebola-affected area last week, was hospitalised on Sunday, Aake Oertqvist head of the Stockholm region’s communicable diseases unit told AFP, without giving details of the man’s identity nor the country he travelled from.
Even if there is a very low risk of an Ebola case in Sweden, healthcare workers closely followed Ebola emergency procedures, he added in a statement.
“When people come home with fever from infected areas it’s most often due to other illnesses such as salmonella, malaria or common colds,” said Oertqvist.
The patient was receiving further tests at Karolinska University Hospital on Monday to determine the cause of his symptoms.
The virus, for which there is no treatment nor vaccine, has claimed 1,552 lives out of 3,069 reported cases — 694 in Liberia, 430 in Guinea, 422 in Sierra Leon and six in Nigeria, according to the latest figures from the World Health Organisation.
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