A patient in Mapel area of Wau State who was quarantined amid fears he had Ebola does not have the killer virus, health officials have confirmed.
The unidentified patient was rushed to Mapel hospital on Friday with bleeding from ears – a sign of Ebola.
He is a soldier undergoing military trainings in Mapel.
Health officials said Friday that while Ebola was unlikely, they could not rule out the virus until test results came back from the capital Juba.
Simon Athuai Akot, health minister in Wau State, told Radio Tamazuj this afternoon that the results showed that it was not a case of Ebola.
“The cases were three but laboratory tests have confirmed that the patients at the Mapel hospital are not suffering from Ebola,” Athuai said.
“Samples had been taken for analysis by our Ebola taskforce and a team from World Health Organization, but laboratory tests showed that it was not a case of Ebola. One patient who was suspected to have Ebola was just found suffering from a respiratory disease,” he added.
South Sudan has a porous border with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where many people move across the two countries for business and other activities.
South Sudan suffered Ebola outbreak in 2004 after World Health Organization (WHO) reported 20 cases including 5 deaths from Ebola hemorrhagic fever (EHF) in Yambio.
Ebola is a deadly viral disease that causes fever, body aches, diarrhea and sometimes bleeding inside and outside the body.