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| Ebola fears world wide. |
AlJazeera) – A Nigerian man who was held and quarantined after he showed Ebola-like
symptoms during a trip to Hong Kong has tested negative for the deadly virus.
The southern Chinese city government said in a statement on Sunday that the man had “tested negative for Ebola virus upon preliminary laboratory testing”.
“In the past one month … he had no contact history with sick persons or animals and did not visit health-are facilities,” a government spokesman said in the statement. “He is currently in stable condition.”
The 32-year-old arrived in Hong Kong from Lagos, Nigeria’s most populous city, via Dubai on Thursday and was hospitalised on Sunday after vomiting and suffering from diarrhoea.
A densely populated city of some seven million people, Hong Kong is particularly alert to the spread of viruses after Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome killed almost 300 people eleven years ago.
On July 30, the Hong Kong government said it would quarantine as a precaution all people from Ebola-infected areas who showed any symptom of the disease such as fever, vomiting or diarrhoea.
Last week, a woman who showed Ebola-like symptoms after returning from a holiday in Kenya, also tested negative for the virus.
Local broadcaster RTHK reported that the Nigerian man had arrived in Hong Kong from his home country on Thursday and was vomiting before he was hospitalised on Sunday morning.
Chinese supplies
In a separate development, China said on Sunday that it had arranged 80 tonnes of anti-Ebola materials for virus-hit countries in West Africa.
A Boeing 747 plane took off from Shanghai on Sunday to transport the supplies to Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea to fight against the Ebola virus.
“The supplies are mainly anti-epidemic goods including protective suits, disinfectants, thermometers and medical drugs,” said Wang Shengwen, director of the Department of Foreign Assistance of the Ministry of Commerce of China.
Nigeria, along with Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia have been hardest hit by the latest epidemic, which the World Health Organisation (WHO) has called the worst outbreak of its kind in four decades.
The most populous nation in Africa, Nigeria confirmed two new cases on Friday of the often fatal hemorrhagic disease, bringing the total number of infections to nine, including two deaths.
The WHO has declared the epidemic an international health emergency, as countries scramble to impose measures to prevent any spread of a contagion that has claimed almost 1,000 lives.