A suspected Ebola case at Uppsala University hospital in Sweden has been ruled out after tests came back negative, the regional health authority confirmed. The young patient, who had recently returned from Burundi, was placed in isolation after displaying symptoms of haemorrhagic fever, including vomiting blood.
Region Uppsala said that the individual, who had been in Burundi for about three weeks, is now confirmed not to have the virus. The emergency clinic at Enköping hospital, where the patient was initially admitted, was temporarily closed, and staff who had contact with the patient were monitored before the negative results were received.
The scare comes amid an ongoing Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which shares a border with Burundi. Since August 2018, the outbreak has resulted in 608 cases and 368 deaths. The World Health Organization's director general, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, described the situation as occurring in 'the most difficult context imaginable', citing violence and political instability hampering containment efforts.
Ebola has a fatality rate ranging from 25% to 90% in past outbreaks, according to the WHO. The virus spreads through close contact with bodily fluids of infected individuals, and the incubation period can be up to 21 days. However, humans are not infectious until symptoms develop, which initially include fever, muscle pain, and sore throat.
The worst Ebola epidemic ended in West Africa in 2016, killing more than 11,300 people. Cases outside Africa remain rare; the first UK diagnosis was in 2014 when Scottish nurse Pauline Cafferkey contracted the virus while volunteering in Sierra Leone.
