The first blood tests on a man who fell ill after arriving in Thailand from the Democratic Republic of Congo have returned negative for Ebola and he was recovering, the Ministry of Public Health announced on Wednesday.
Health permanent secretary Narong Sahametapat said the 33-year-old foreign man showed no sign of illness when he arrived in Thailand from central Africa last Friday through Suvarnabhumi airport.
On Monday he developed a high temperature and diarrhea. Health officials took the man to a hospital in Bangkok and were monitoring 18 people who had contact with him.
Dr Suphan Srithamma, director-general of the Department of Medical Services, said the first round of the foreigner's blood tests by the Department of Medical Sciences and the Faculty of Medicine at Chulalongkorn University did not find any infection with the Ebola virus, malaria or dengue hemorrhagic fever.
On Wednesday morning the patient had recovered from his fever, his diarrhea was diminished and he could take care of himself.
People who had been in contact with the man remained healthy. Blood tests would be repeated on Friday for confirmaton, Dr Suphan said.
Although the man had arrived from DR Congo, he had travelled from a location that was as far as 400 kilometres from Equateur province where Ebola transmission had been reported, he said. The Ebola outbreak is centred on nearby Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone to the northwest.