SAO PAULO, June 1 (Reuters) – Brazil has cleared two suspected cases of Ebola after both patients tested negative for the virus, local authorities said on Monday.
The suspected cases emerged over the weekend from patients with related symptoms who had recently been in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where the current Ebola outbreak is centered, and in neighboring Uganda, which has also reported cases.
The patients in Brazil had tested positive for other diseases, but local authorities waited for Ebola test results to rule out the cases.
Brazil’s state of Sao Paulo said no genetic material of Ebola was found in the testing of a 37-year-old man who came from the Democratic Republic of Congo, and who had already tested positive for meningitis.
In Rio de Janeiro, a patient who had recently traveled to Uganda also tested negative for Ebola, health research institute Fiocruz and the city hall said in separate statements. The patient had tested positive for malaria.
(Reporting by Eduardo Simoes and Andre Romani in Sao Paulo, and Rodrigo Viga Gaier in Rio de Janeiro; Editing by Bill Berkrot)
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