Ebola In Brazil: Preliminary Test For First Suspected Case Comes Back Negative

In the first suspected case of Ebola virus disease in Brazil, a 47-year-old man tested negative for it in the first of two tests, the Brazilian Ministry of Health reported. The second test will either confirm or not confirm the initial results.

“The patient’s health condition is good, he does not present with fever and will be kept in complete isolation at the Evandro Chagas National Institute of Infectious Disease in Rio de Janeiro (RJ). If the second test also rules out the possibility of Ebola infection, the patient will leave isolation and the monitoring system for those who had been in contact with him will be dismantled,” the country’s health ministry said in a statement.

The patient departed Guinea Sept. 18 and arrived in Brazil Sept. 19. He was considered Brazil’s first possible Ebola case after developing a fever and going to an emergency unit in the city of Cascavel in the state of Parana. Brazilian health officials began monitoring 64 people who came into contact with the patient. There are no reported cases of Ebola in Latin America, Reuters said.

There have been a small number of cases of Ebola outside West Africa. In Dallas, Thomas Eric Duncan began showing disease symptoms several days after arriving in the U.S. from Liberia: He died Wednesday. In Madrid, a nurse started showing symptoms after caring for a couple of patients who came to Spain from West Africa: Her condition is improving as of Saturday, Agence France-Presse reported.

The U.S. began an enhanced Ebola screening policy in five major airports Saturday, and the U.K. will adopt its own procedures in the near future.