A second patient in Brazil with suspected Ebola has tested negative for the virus, health authorities said Monday.
Two men who arrived in Brazil from African countries with viral symptoms had been placed in isolation amid growing concern over an outbreak of the deadly haemorrhagic fever in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Uganda.
Sao Paulo health authorities said in a statement that Ebola had been “ruled out” for a 37-year-old man who had traveled to the DRC.
A statement from the health ministry on Sunday said the man had tested positive for meningitis.
The statement added that a man placed in isolation in Rio de Janeiro after traveling to Uganda had been diagnosed with malaria and his Ebola test came back negative.
The health ministry said “the risk of the disease being introduced into Brazil and South America remains very low.”
There have been more than 1,000 suspected cases of Ebola in the DRC since the outbreak was declared on May 15, including nearly 250 deaths, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said on Thursday.
Several infections and one death have been confirmed in neighboring Uganda.
While Ebola kills about half of those infected on average, it spreads relatively slowly because transmission requires direct contact with infected bodily fluids.
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