A man is in hospital in Canada with symptoms of a haemorrhagic fever resembling the Ebola virus, a health official has said.
A Canadian man in hospital with symptoms of a haemorrhagic fever resembling Ebola has tested negative for the virus, a health official says.
The man had recently returned from Liberia in the west African region, currently suffering a deadly outbreak of an unidentified haemorrhagic fever.
The man had recently returned from a trip to West Africa, which is suffering a deadly outbreak of Ebola.
He is in isolation in critical condition in Saskatoon, the largest city in Saskatchewan province.
Isolated in a critical condition in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan province, tests also cleared the man of Marburg virus, Lassa fever and Rift Valley fever.
A provincial medical official said there was no risk to the public.
His illness may be severe malaria, said the World Health Organization (WHO).
Dr Denise Werker, the province's deputy chief medical officer, declined to say how long the man had been in Africa but said he only fell ill after returning to Canada.
Gregory Hartl, the WHO's head of public relations, tweeted the preliminary results on Tuesday.
She said that was in line with the profile of common deadly haemorrhagic fever viruses Lassa fever and Ebola, which have an incubation period of up to 21 days.
There is said to be no risk to the public.
She said the people most at risk were healthcare workers who do not protect themselves from contact with the patient's bodily secretions.
Sixty-one people have died in an Ebola outbreak in the remote forests of southern Guinea.
"There is no risk to the general public," she said. "We recognise that there is going to be a fair amount of concern and that is why we wanted to go public with this as soon as possible."
Suspected cases have also been reported in the neighbouring countries of Liberia and Sierra Leone.
A virus resembling Ebola has struck in Guinea, with cases also reported in Liberia.
As many as 61 people have died of the disease in the remote forests of southern Guinea.
But health officials in the Guinean capital, Conakry, have said the virus is not Ebola.
In Saskatchewan, Dr Werker said the man's diagnosis had not yet been confirmed and that a laboratory in Winnipeg was testing a biological specimen from the man.
There is no drug treatment for Ebola, although Lassa can be treated with the drug Ribavirin.
