Taiwan's suspected Ebola case turns out to be a hoax

Taiwan's suspected Ebola case turned out to be a hoax with test results found to be negative, the island's disease control authorities said Saturday.

A 19-year-old man claimed he had been vomiting and suffering from diarrhea since he returned from Nigeria where he ate bat meat. In fact, it was found he had no fever after being isolated in a hospital in southern Taiwan's Kaohsiung city, Xinhua reported.

Disease control authorities found the man had no record of ever having left Taiwan. It is not immediately clear why he had given false information.

According to Taiwan's regulations, a person faces a fine of between 10,000 new Taiwan dollars ($320) and 150,000 new Taiwan dollars for giving false information about communicable diseases.