Two possible Ebola cases in Brazil ruled out as patients test negative

Two suspected cases of Ebola in Brazil have been cleared after both patients tested negative for the virus, local health authorities have said.

The individuals were monitored in Brazil's two biggest cities after returning from African countries, with both showing related symptoms.

São Paulo health authorities said in a statement that Ebola had been ruled out for a 37-year-old man who had travelled to the DR Congo, which is at the centre of the outbreak. He had already tested positive for meningitis.

Another patient in Rio de Janeiro, who had recently travelled to Uganda, also tested negative for Ebola after testing positive for malaria.

Local authorities said the man in São Paulo had "exhibited symptoms such as fever", while the man in Rio de Janeiro, from Belgium, had shown "viral symptoms such as cough, chills and diarrhoea".

If the cases had been positive, they would have been the first infection cases outside Africa since the outbreak began in DR Congo.

There are now more than 1,000 suspected Ebola cases in DR Congo, with at least 246 deaths. Cases are concentrated in the country's Ituri, North and South Kivu provinces.

The current outbreak has been caused by a rare strain of Ebola known as Bundibugyo, which has no proven vaccine and kills about a third of those infected.