A man in Spain who was initially suspected of having the deadly Marburg disease tested negative on Saturday and does not have the virus, the health ministry said.
Health authorities in Valencia earlier said they had detected the first suspected case of the infectious disease in the country which led to the quarantine of more than 200 people in Equatorial Guinea.
The 34-year-old, who had recently traveled to Equatorial Guinea, had since been cleared but would be tested once more in the coming weeks, officials said.
He had been transferred from a private hospital to an isolation unit at La Fe hospital in Valencia while tests were carried out, Valencia regional health authorities said.
Three medical staff treating the man have also been isolated as a precaution, authorities said.
The Marburg virus can have a mortality rate of up to 88%, according to the World Health Organization. There is no approved vaccine or antiviral therapy to treat it.
Equatorial Guinea quarantined more than 200 people and restricted movement on February 13 in its province of Kie-Ntem, where hemorrhagic fever was first detected.
There’s a race to contain an outbreak of Marburg disease – caused by a virus linked to Ebola – in Equatorial Guinea, where at least nine people have died. There is no cure for this deadly disease and development of a vaccine was halted years ago.
The small central African country has so far reported nine deaths as well as 16 suspected cases of the disease, with symptoms including fever, fatigue, blood-stained vomiting and diarrhoea, according to the WHO.
Cameroonian authorities detected two suspected cases of Marburg disease on February 13 in Olamze, a border town with Equatorial Guinea, the region’s public health delegate, Robert Mathurin Bidjang, said on February 14.
Cameroon had restricted movement along the border in an attempt to avoid contagion.
