A Nigerian soldier suspected of contracting the deadly Ebola virus tested negative Thursday, the Ministry of Health said.
Dan Nwomeh, the spokesperson to the Minister of Health, Onyebuchi Chukwu, said the soldier, who returned from Sierra Leone to Kaduna, was free of the disease.
The soldier had taken ill on his return and was diagnosed of Ebola, but later tested negative to the disease, Mr. Nwomeh tweeted Wednesday.
He denied there were five new cases of Ebola in Nigeria.
The Lagos State Commissioner of Health, Jide Idris, had said Wednesday that there were five new “suspected” cases of Ebola in Lagos.
Mr. Nwomeh said a Liberian man- not Patrick Sawyer- suspected of having the disease also tested negative. Mr. Sawyer was the Liberian man who brought Ebola into Nigeria. He died in Lagos early August.
Mr. Nwomeh said the second Liberian was spotted by port health officials while travelling out of Nigeria. The man who had high fever, however, tested negative to Ebola but was positive to malaria.
He said the Liberian has since been treated and allowed to continue his journey.
Mr. Nwomeh, in his tweet, also said the confirmed cases in the country remains at 12, out of which five have died, five discharged, while two other are being treated.
Mr. Nwomeh also said that the Health Minister, Onyebuchi Chukwu, is the only one authorised to announce cases of disease epidemic in Nigeria.
