Sierra Leone's chief medical officer says tests carried on all suspected Ebola samples have proved negative. An email containing details of the lap test results seen by Politico shows they were all negative.
Fifteen samples were collected from Boidu in the eastern Kono District which borders southeastern Guinea where there have been several deaths from the haemorrhagic fever.
Two people were buried in the village after they'd died in Guinea just a mile across the border as they had gone to attend the funeral of an Ebola victim. The samples include from people who had come into contact with the two corpses.
UN WHO sources in Freetown have also confirmed that "all tests have proved negative for Ebola".
Four other people died in the northern Kambia district which also borders Guinea and were suspected to have been cases of Ebola.
Dr Brima Kargbo says the tests were conducted in "a well-equipped laboratory in Kenema in the southeast of the country" which he says means those deaths were "not Ebola related".
Panic has spread across the Mano River Union basin since the viral fever started wreaking havoc in Guinea with some confirmed cases also in Liberia.
The Sierra Leone government has set up a Task Force comprising health officials and international partners and has imposed travel restrictions with Guinea and Liberia and slammed a ban on the transport of corpses into the country for burial.
People have been warned against eating bats and bush animals found dead.
(C) Politico 10/04/14
