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A man in Spain who was initially suspected of having the deadly Marburg disease tested negative on Saturday and did not have the virus, the Health Minister said.
Health authorities in Valencia earlier said they had detected the first suspected case of the infectious disease that led to the quarantine of more than 200 people in Equatorial Guinea.
The 34-year-old man, who was recently in Equatorial Guinea, has been given the all-clear but will be tested again in the coming weeks, officials said.
He has been transferred from a private hospital to an isolation unit at La Fe Hospital in Valencia while tests are carried out, Valencian regional health authorities said.
Three health staff who treated the man were also isolated as a precautionary measure, authorities said.
The Marburg virus can cause a fatality rate of up to 88 percent, according to the World Health Organization. There is no vaccine or antiviral treatment approved to treat it.
Equatorial Guinea quarantined more than 200 people and restricted movement on February 13 in Kie-Ntem province, where hemorrhagic fever was first detected.
There is a race to contain an outbreak of Marburg disease – caused by a virus related to Ebola – in Equatorial Guinea, where at least nine people have died. There is no cure for the deadly disease and vaccine development has stalled for years.
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, vomiting blood and diarrhea, according to the WHO.
Cameroonian authorities detected two suspected cases of Marburg disease on February 13 in Olamze, a commune on the border with Equatorial Guinea, the public health delegate for the region, Robert Mathurin Bidjang, said on February 14.
Cameroon has restricted movement at the border to avoid contagion.
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