Suspected Ebola case tests negative in Italy

A suspected case of the Ebola virus disease in Italy was dismissed by health officials Wednesday.

Authorities reported that clinical tests carried out at the Spallanzani National Institute for Infectious Diseases in Rome ruled out the presence of the deadly virus in a suspected case reported Tuesday.

"We can confirm the patient tested negative. Our laboratories gave results within six hours from the moment they received blood samples," Giuseppe Ippolito, scientific director of the Spallanzani Institute, told Xinhua.

The patient was a 42-year-old Nigerian woman long living in Italy's central region of Marche.

She had started having high fever, muscle aches, and other symptoms similar to those of Ebola Monday. She was admitted early Tuesday to the main regional hospital in the city of Ancona, where she was kept in an isolated ward.

The woman had traveled to Nigeria in August to visit her family and undergo minor surgery, and returned to Italy last week.

This was the third suspected Ebola case isolated in Italy, the two others reported from the northern city of Padua earlier last week. All of them tested negative.

"A spread of the Ebola virus in Italy is highly unlikely thanks to our sanitary and hygienic conditions," Stefano Vella, director of Italy's National Institute of Health pharmacology department, said.

The outbreak of Ebola virus is by far the largest in the nearly 40-year history of the deadly disease. As of Saturday, 4,269 cases and 2,288 deaths had been reported in the current outbreak of the disease in Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Nigeria, according to the World Health Organisation.