Ebola symptoms similar to dengue fever

The symptoms of Ebola virus disease (EVD) is similar to dengue fever in Malaysia, but with additional features.

Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr S. Subramaniam said the similar symptoms were fever, muscular ache, headache, sore throat, stomach ache, vomiting, diarrhoea, rashes and fatigue.

Those who did not contact an EVD patient or visit West African countries recently needed not worry of being infected despite suffering from similar symptoms, he said.

Nonetheless, he added, an EVD outbreak might occur if a person who had just returned in the past 21 days from countries such Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria experienced such symptoms.

He was speaking at a media conference after attending an appreciation ceremony for Malaysian Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) team in Hilversum, the Netherlands of Malaysia Airlines (MAS) MH17 air crash held at the ministry, here, on Wednesday.

Subramaniam said members of the public were also advised not to touch items which might have been infected with fluid from the patients such as blood, faeces or urine.

He also advised people to postpone their visit to the affected countries and should a visit be necessary, visitors should avoid homes or health facilities affected with the EVD outbreak.

He said the government had put in place preventive measures at the country's main entry points at all airports to quarantine and examine tourists from the affected countries.

Yesterday, the Health Ministry confirmed a 24-year-old Zimbabwean student who was earlier quarantined at Sarawak General Hospital for suspected Ebola virus infection was found negative after laboratory tests on the student's clinical samples.

In this regard, the ministry clarified that to date there were no EVD cases in Malaysia.