Two Nigerians, who were hospitalised with fever at the HCM City-based Tropical Hospital yesterday, are recovering, confirmed the hospital's director Nguyen Van Vinh Chau today.

The two Nigerian men had entered Viet Nam via Tan Son Nhat International Airport on Monday with symptoms of fever and were later taken to the isolation ward in the Tropical Hospital for fear that they might be infected with the deadly Ebola virus, which is currently affecting West African countries. Their blood samples were taken for testing.

Doctor Chau said the two Nigerians no longer have fever but are being kept under supervision in the hospital for the next 24 hours.

If they recover completely and have no Ebola-related symptoms, the hospital would propose to the health ministry that they should be discharged, but they would still be kept under further supervision, he added.

The two Nigerians arrived in Viet Nam from Qatar onboard flight QR964 on Tuesday. They had left Nigeria, one of the four West African countries which have been badly affected by the Ebola outbreak, on Monday.

Local authorities have set up action plans to contain the disease in case there is an Ebola outbreak in Viet Nam, and are keeping a special close watch on Vietnamese workers and students who have returned home from Ebola-hit regions.

Ebola, which spreads by close contact with an infected person through bodily fluids such as sweat, blood and tissue, has killed more than 1,000 people in the current outbreak in southern Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

No case of Ebola infection has been reported in Viet Nam so far.

VNS/VNN