A Russian citizen exhibiting symptoms consistent with the Ebola virus has been hospitalized in the Kazakh city of Almaty, the Ekho Moskvy radio station reported Sunday.
The man, identified as 37-year-old Sergei Baryshnikov, arrived at the Almaty Airport on Saturday from Guinea, a western African nation stricken with the disease, after having made a connection in the Turkish city of Istanbul, Ekho Moskvy reported.
Baryshnikov, who had made a business trip to Guinea, was reportedly suffering from diarrhea, a high fever and other flu-like symptoms. The results of a blood test to determine the presence of the virus in Baryshnikov's system are likely to be known Monday, according to Ekho Moskvy.
The Russian Health Ministry said Sunday that it was unlikely Baryshnikov had in fact been infected with the virus, the RIA Novosti news agency reported.
"According to doctors, the patient has not shown any symptoms specific to the disease [Ebola]," RIA Novosti cited the Health Ministry's press service as saying.
Some 120 people who had been in contact with Baryshnikov are being followed by medical personnel, RIA Novosti reported.
Although Russia is thus far believed to have been spared by the virus, the threat of its propagation has led to a handful of quarantines in recent months. In January, passengers of an Aeroflot flight were quarantined at Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport after a person on board had exhibited symptoms similar those of the Ebola virus. The passenger in question, it turned out, had not been infected with the virus.
In the past year, Ebola has claimed the lives of more than 10,000 people in the western African states of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, according to the World Health Organization.
