From Sky News

South Africa has issued a ban on non-citizens travelling from three west African countries worst affected by Ebola.

A health ministry statement on Thursday declared ‘a total travel ban for all non-citizens travelling from these high risk countries,’ referring to Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

South Africans returning home from these areas will undergo strict screening, it added.

Authorities also barred non-essential travel to the three countries.

South Africa has so far been Ebola-free despite two scares in as many weeks: a South African man returning from Liberia and a Guinean woman.

Both tested negative.

Meanwhile, Irish authorities are testing a ‘suspected case of Ebola virus’ after a person who travelled to an affected area in Africa was found dead.

‘The public health department was made aware earlier (on Thursday) of the remains of an individual, discovered early this morning, who had recently travelled to the one of the areas in Africa affected by the current Ebola virus disease outbreak,’ the Health Service Executive (HSE) said in a statement on Thursday.

‘Until a diagnosis is confirmed, and as a precautionary measure, the individual’s remains will stay in the mortuary pending the laboratory results.’

The suspected case is in Donegal in northwest Ireland. Test results are expected late on Friday (Saturday AEST).

The outbreak of the Ebola virus in West Africa is the largest ever and has killed 1,350 people in Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone and Nigeria since March.

‘We await the outcome of the laboratory tests before we will know whether or not this individual had contracted Ebola virus disease,’ said Darina O’Flanagan, the head of the HSE health protection surveillance centre.

‘The appropriate public health guidelines are being followed at every stage in this process as a precaution.’

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