Riyadh: Doctors in Saudi Arabia are testing a patient suspected of having contracted Ebola during a trip to West Africa, hit by an epidemic of the virus, the health ministry said on Tuesday.
The Saudi man was admitted to hospital in the Red Sea city of Jeddah after showing symptoms of haemorrhagic fever on his return from Sierra Leone.
The patient, in his 40s, is in critical condition and has symptoms “similar to that of Ebola infection”.
Ebola-like symptoms include fever, vomiting, severe headaches and muscular pain and, in the final stages, profuse bleeding.
The ministry says the cause of his sickness is unknown, but that Ebola cannot be ruled out.
The UN World Health Organisation said on Monday that at least 887 people have died from Ebola since the beginning of the year, after the virus spread across Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
In April, Saudi Arabia announced a ban on visas for Muslims in the three West African nations wishing to perform the pilgrimage to the Muslim holy sites there.
The ministry says different types of viral haemorrhagic fevers are found in the kingdom, but that no case of Ebola has yet been detected in the country.
