Two men, from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Uganda, presenting symptoms compatible with Ebola disease, were placed in isolation in Brazil, announced the authorities who are continuing their investigations after initial examinations.
A 37-year-old man from the DRC, where a new Ebola epidemic is progressing in the east, “presented symptoms such as fever, meeting the definition of a suspected case” of Ebola, the government of the state of Sao Paulo announced in a press release on Saturday, which did not specify the date of entry of this man on Brazilian soil.
The patient was “placed in isolation” as a precaution, in an institute specializing in infectious diseases. Analyzes have not yet confirmed the presence of the disease, but investigations are continuing, according to the authorities.
In Rio de Janeiro, the State Health Secretariat also announced on Saturday the placement in isolation of a man from Uganda, who arrived in Brazil on May 22, “presenting viral symptoms such as cough, chills and diarrhea.”
Rio city hall clarified on Sunday, in an email to AFP, that the man had tested positive for malaria but that his “case remained under investigation”.
The Sao Paulo authorities assured that “the technical assessment indicates that the risk of introduction of the disease into Brazil and South America remains very low.”
The DRC, one of the poorest countries in the world, declared on May 15 a new Ebola epidemic hitting its immense territory of more than 100 million inhabitants. The WHO has issued an international health alert.
The virus that causes Ebola, which causes an extremely deadly hemorrhagic fever, has already been detected in three Congolese provinces as well as in neighboring Uganda, where two new cases were confirmed on Friday, bringing the number of confirmed cases in the East African country to nine.
In the DRC, 246 deaths out of more than 1,000 suspected cases were recorded, according to a report Thursday from the Africa CDC, the health agency of the African Union.
