Scientific tests in South Africa on samples from a suspected Ebola case in neighbouring Zimbabwe have turned up no evidence of the deadly virus, South African health officials said today.
"All tests show negative for Ebola," Health Ministry spokeswoman Ms Samantha Bloem told reporters. "They can rule out this disease."
Fears of Ebola - one of the most virulent diseases on the planet - resurfaced this week when Zimbabwe officials said a man had died in the resort town of Victoria Falls with symptoms similar to the highly contagious virus.
The man, identified as an Angolan trader, died on Christmas Day and medical samples were sent to South Africa's National Institute for Communicable Diseases for checks.
Ms Bloem said the tests had ruled out all forms of haemorrhagic fever -- of which Ebola is the most feared -- but could not determine what actually caused the man's death.
"That will be for health officials in Zimbabwe to determine," she said.
Zimbabwe has had no proven cases of Ebola, which kills up to 90 per cent of infected people and for which there is no known cure. Almost all cases thus far reported have been in central Africa, where the virus was first detected in 1976.