MOSCOW, October 28 (RIA Novosti) – A journalist who arrived from a West African country to Tokyo on Monday, tested negative for the Ebola virus disease, Japan's Health Ministry said Tuesday as quoted by NHK World.
According to the broadcaster, the unidentified 45-year-old Canadian journalist stayed in Liberia for about two months, starting from August 18, and was covering the Ebola outbreak in West African countries.
Upon arrival at Haneda airport the man showed an increased body temperature. The journalist, who flew to Japan via London, was then taken to Tokyo's National Institute of Infectious Diseases for blood tests.
Now the man is hospitalized at the National Center for Global Health and Medicine and will remain there for another three days, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare said as quoted by NHK World.
The current case of possible Ebola fever is the first in Japan.
Japan has recently joined global efforts to fight Ebola in order to contain the disease in West Africa and prevent it from spreading to other countries. Japan expressed its readiness to increase supplies of personnel, equipment and money to fight the fever.
The current Ebola outbreak originated in West Africa in February, later spreading to Liberia, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, and Senegal. However, Nigeria and Senegal were later declared Ebola-free.
The World Health Organization (WHO) reported 10,141 Ebola cases worldwide and 4,922 deaths as of October 23.
