DOHA
Saudi Arabia is free of the deadly Ebola virus, Adel Faqeeh, the country's acting health minister, said Wednesday.
"We have mobilized all financial, human and logistical resources to ensure that the pilgrimage season is free of epidemics," Faqeeh told a meeting sponsored by the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council.
Last week, a man suspected of carrying the deadly virus died of a heart attack in a Saudi hospital.
Saudi health official Abdullah Oseri, however, said the man had tested negative for the virus.
In recent months, Ebola – a contagious disease for which there is no known treatment or cure – has claimed more than 1000 lives across West Africa, especially in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea and Nigeria.
The tropical fever, which first appeared in 1976 in Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo, can be transmitted to humans from wild animals.
It also reportedly spreads through contact with the body fluids of infected persons or of those who have succumbed to the disease.
In April, Saudi Arabia stopped issuing entry visas to travelers coming from Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea.
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