KAMPALA, Feb. 12 (Xinhua) -- Laboratory results for a suspected Ebola case in Uganda turned out to be gegative, a ministry of health official said on Tuesday.
Diana Atwine, permanent secretary of ministry of health, said in a tweet that there was no cause for alarm since the results have turned out negative.
She said the ministry will continue to build a resilient surveillence system.
The ministry and the World Health Organization (WHO) earlier on Tuesday said they had quarantined 13 people who picked up a body of suspected Ebola death in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), as hemorrhagic fever tests were carried out.
The ministry said it had dispatched a team to the eastern Ugandan district of Tororo to conduct a safe and dignified burial of the deceased.
Uganda is on an Ebola alert as neighboring DRC are facing an outbreak of the deadly hemorrhagic fever.
The highly contagious Ebola virus causes a range of symptoms including fever, vomiting, diarrhea, generalized pain or malaise and in many cases internal and external bleeding, according to WHO.
Mortality rates of Ebola fever, according to the global health body, are extremely high, with the human case fatality rate ranging from 50 percent to 89 percent, depending on viral subtype.
