MOSCOW, October 18 (RIA Novosti) - African students admitted to a hospital in Russia's Orel city with Ebola-like symptoms do not have the virus, Russia's public health watchdog Rospotrebnadzor told RIA Novosti Saturday.
"According to the studies, the students are not infected with Ebola," Rospotrebnadzor's representative said.
Earlier this week, it was reported that two students of the Orel State University had been hospitalized over suspected Ebola. The students were isolated in the infectious diseases department of the city hospital in Orel. The students came to Orel by bus from Moscow, and flew to the capital by plane from Guinea-Bissau.
The Ebola virus is transmitted through direct contact with the bodily fluids of those infected.
West Africa is currently facing the worst Ebola outbreak in history, which so far has claimed the lives of over 4,555 people among 9,216 confirmed, probable and suspected cases of Ebola, according to the latest WHO estimates. The outbreak began in southern Guinea in February and later spread to Liberia, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, and Senegal, with several Ebola cases having been reported outside of West Africa.
