A man in his 30s who was hospitalized with a fever after returning to Japan from Guinea has tested negative for Ebola, the health ministry said Thursday.
The man arrived Wednesday night at Narita International Airport after spending three months in the West African state and was taken to a medical facility.
A blood sample was sent to the National Institute of Infectious Diseases in Tokyo for testing, according to the ministry. The tests also cleared him of malaria and influenza.
Guinea is one of the countries that have been hardest hit by Ebola. The man had no contact with any Ebola patients, the ministry said.
He exhibited no specific symptoms of the disease but was found to have a fever of 38.7 degrees upon arrival at Narita. The nan was sent to a hospital designated for treating infectious disease patients in Chiba Prefecture, where his temperature was found to have declined to 37.1.
It was the ninth alert over a possible Ebola infection in Japan. All have been false alarms.