The samples taken from a cross-border trader who died at Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe on Christmas Day tested negative for a variety of contagious diseases, including Ebola, a Johannesburg laboratory reported on Tuesday.
”We believe that the results virtually rule out a diagnosis of Marburg disease, Ebola fever, Rift Valley fever or Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever,” a statement from the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) read.
Zimbabwe has been on high alert after the trader, known only as C. Mangere, died from a suspected viral haemorrhagic fever on December 25.
The 49-year-old Zimbabwean fell ill in the southern Angolan town of Lubango. He was admitted to Victoria Falls’ main hospital with symptoms of bloody diarrhoea, blood in the urine, and a fever.
Although health officials assured the press that Ebola was unlikely, immigration officers in neighbouring countries monitored the situation closely.
Ebola, one of the world’s deadliest viral diseases, causes extensive internal bleeding and rapid death in up to 90% of those infected.
It is transmitted by direct contact with the blood, secretions, organs or semen of infected people.
The incubation period is between two to 21 days and symptoms include the sudden onset of fever, weakness, muscle pain, headache and sore throat.
This is followed by vomiting, diarrhoea, rash, limited kidney and liver functions, and internal and external bleeding.
No specific treatment or vaccine exists.
An Ebola outbreak that had claimed 29 lives in the northwestern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), as of early December was being brought under control, the World Health Organisation said two weeks ago.
The NICD had used a variety of different tests on the specimen and they all turned out negative, said spokesman R. Swanepoel. However, he said more tests were still being run.
Swanepoel said that the situation in Lubango, Angola, where the patient contracted the disease should be investigated, as it appeared that there were many similar cases of haemorrhagic diarrhoea in the region.
He said the institute was unable to test the present specimen for diseases such as bacillary dysentery and typhoid. – Sapa