Two suspected Ebola cases in Brazil have been ruled out as both travellers tested negative for the virus.
The patients were monitored in Brazil’s biggest cities, São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, after returning from African countries and showing related symptoms.
In São Paulo, the 37‑year‑old man who had traveled to the Democratic Republic of Congo, the epicentre of the current outbreak, was ruled out of Ebola after tests confirmed meningitis. He had presented with fever, a common early sign of Ebola.
The second traveller in Rio de Janeiro, who had recently visited Uganda and came from Belgium, also tested negative for Ebola even though he showed viral symptoms such as cough, chills and diarrhoea. He was instead diagnosed with malaria.
Had either case tested positive, it would have been the first recognised infection outside Africa since the outbreak began.
The Democratic Republic of Congo currently reports over 1,000 suspected cases, with at least 246 confirmed deaths, concentrated in the Ituri, North Kivu and South Kivu provinces. Uganda has nine confirmed cases and one death.
The subject strain, Bundibugyo, has no proven vaccine and kills about a third of those infected. Researchers, including the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, the University of Oxford and Moderna, are developing new vaccines.
Ebola primarily comes from fruit bats, but can be transmitted to humans through handling or eating infected animals. It spreads by direct contact with bodily fluids such as blood, sweat, saliva, semen, urine, vomit or excretions.
Both patients now remain in treatment for their respective conditions, and the Brazilian health authorities have continued monitoring the situation.
