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NAIROBI, KENYA: A suspected Ebola case can only be ruled as negative after multiple tests at least 48 hours apart, the World Health Organisation has said.
WHO announced it was alarmed that countries were hurriedly discarding probable cases as negative within hours instead of the minimum two days.
"Such rapid determination of infection status is impossible," the organisation said in an update early Wednesday.
WHO, however, did not mention any countries in the update.
"Two negative tests, at least 48 hours apart, are required for a clinical asymptomatic patient to be discharged from hospital or for a suspected Ebola case to be discarded as testing negative for the virus," WHO says.
Kenya has had at least three Ebola scares since the outbreak in West Africa in February, and one of the cases involved a primary school child who had travelled into the country from Liberia.
More recently, a female passenger with Ebola-like symptoms died at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, moments after arriving from Juba, South Sudan.
While in both cases the tests have returned negative results, the State has declared that the victims were free of the virus in less than two days.
CONCLUSIVE RESULTS
Typically, results on laboratory examination on suspected Ebola cases are released within four hours, the Kenya Medical Research Institute says.
WHO announced that Ebola could take up to 42 days to diagnose. The agency reported that a research it carried out showed that one in 20 Ebola infections have an incubation period longer than the 21 days.
The dangers presented by the hasty testing would be ruling out the virus of the haemorrhagic fever, when actually the patient is infected.
WHO's alarm comes amid fears of a worsening Ebola situation around the world, with projections that West Africa could face up to 10,000 new cases of the disease a week within two months.
Mortality rates among victims confirmed to have contracted Ebola has risen to 70 per cent of all infected victims - up from 50 per cent. By Tuesday, the death toll in West Africa had risen to 4,447 out of the 8,900 cases of patients believed to be suffering from the disease.
Kenya has stopped direct flights to Liberia, one of the worst hit countries, to avoid exposure to an illness that the UN health agency has now reclassified as 'high mortality disease'.
Kenya has also stepped up its preparedness and response to combat the Ebola threat and plans to train up to 60 per cent of health workers and medical personnel.
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