PORT AU PRINCE, Haiti (CMC) — Health officials have dismissed reports that a case of Ebola has been detected in the country.

On Saturday, Dr Florence D Guillaume, minister of public health, told the Haitian Caribbean News Network that the reports of an Ebola case being detected in the vicinity of Petite Riviere de l’Artibonite, in the northern region of the country were totally false.

“There are ill-intentioned people spreading such rumours,” said Guillaume, the acting prime minister

According to Guillaume, the depoliticisation of the health sector was “an essential principle for the restoration of trust and confidence in the response to provide to individuals who require care and services for prevention, maintaining or the restoration of their health in case of illness”.

The Ministry of Health has, meanwhile, called on the population “to remain calm and to respect all disclosed prevention regulations while making the duty, if any were needed, to reassure everyone of the effectiveness of the vigilance system in place to reduce significantly the risk of contamination of our country”.

Ebola is an infectious and generally fatal disease marked by fever and severe internal bleeding, spread through contact with infected body fluids.

There is no known cure for the Ebola virus which has killed more than 7,000 people, mainly in West Africa.