Suspected Ebola patient was false alarm, Swedish hospital says

Health workers walk with a boy suspected as having the Ebola virus in Beni, Eastern Congo, in this file photo dated Sept. 9, 2018.

Swedish health officials said a case of suspected Ebola has turned out to be a false alarm after the patient's test results found no signs of the virus. The male patient had been admitted to an isolated emergency ward on Friday with a fever and blood in his vomit and stools.

Officials said the man's condition had improved throughout the day, and that his tests found no sign of yellow fever, dengue, Marburg virus or Rift Valley fever either.

The patient had spent three weeks in Burundi, which is currently not experiencing an Ebola outbreak but borders the Democratic Republic of Congo, where over 350 people have died from the virus in the last six months.

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Before arriving at Uppsala University Hospital, the patient sought treatment at an emergency clinic in Enkoping, which was then closed, with medical staff who came in contact with him already being cared for.

It was not clear what kind of illness the man was suffering from, nor when he would be released as he is set to undergo further testing. His relatives, who had also been isolated, were free to go home.

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Symptoms of Ebola can take up to the three weeks to appear and is spread through contact with bodily fluids of infected patients. So far officials have confirmed 585 cases of Ebola in Congo, with an American health worker evacuated recently due to potential exposure to the virus. That patient has been placed in a secure area at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, but was not experiencing symptoms of hemorrhagic fever and was not believed to be contagious.

The current outbreak is the second largest in history, with violence often disrupting the work of emergency personnel. More than 53,000 people in Congo have received an experimental Ebola vaccine, including the American health worker who was evacuated.