Ebola tests in Macedonia on dead Briton discount likelihood he had virus
Macedonian authorities say there is only a "small probability" a Briton who died in Skopje on Thursday had the Ebola virus, according to an initial analysis.
'Health authorities are closer to the standpoint that there is a small probability he had Ebola'
Thomson Reuters ·
Dr. Jovanka Kostovska, of the Macedonian Health Ministry, said initial tests on the body of a British man indicate only a 'small probability' he had the Ebola virus. (Boris Grdanoski/The Associated Press)
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Macedonian authorities said on Friday there was only a "small probability" a Briton who died in Skopje on Thursday had the Ebola virus, according to an initial analysis.
"Based on the epidemiological analysis made yesterday, health authorities are closer to the standpoint that there is a small probability he had Ebola," Dr. Jovanka Kostovska of the health ministry's commission for infectious diseases told a news conference.
Police guard the entrance to a quarantined hotel in Skopje. A British man who died in Macedonia Thursday is believed now to have not been suffering from Ebola. (Ognen Teofilovski/Reuters)
But she stressed the need to wait for the full results from Germany.
Macedonian health authorities have sent blood and tissue samples from the dead Briton to Frankfurt for testing. Kostovska said they expected the results on Saturday afternoon.
Kostovska said 25 people had been put in isolation in the hotel where the dead man had stayed, which was sealed off by police.
Ten others were in isolation in hospital, including the ambulance crew that treated the Briton. None of the 35 had shown any symptoms of Ebola, which has killed nearly 4,000 people in West Africa since March.
