Tanzania has formally told the World Health Organization (WHO) that it has no cases of Ebola after a woman died there earlier this month from an unknown illness following Ebola-like symptoms, the organisation said on Wednesday.
“This followed earlier rumours of the death of one person and illness in a few others,” the WHO said in a statement. “Tanzanian authorities did not indicate what the cause of the illnesses might have been.”
The WHO received the notification on Sept. 14, the statement said. It was unclear why it took four days to make it public.
The WHO announcement came a day after the head of a U.S. government health agency traveled to Tanzania at the direction of America’s health secretary, Alex Azar. Azar criticized Tanzania earlier this week for not sharing information.
Tanzania’s health minister said on Saturday that the government had investigated two recent cases of unknown illnesses, but they were not Ebola.
“The two patients did not have Ebola,” Ummy Mwalimu told reporters. “There is no Ebola outbreak in Tanzania as we speak, people should not panic.”
She did not say if the two cases investigated included the death of the woman. The ministry did not answer calls on Wednesday.
