Congolese health authorities were screening more than 300 people travelling on a river boat intercepted near Kinshasa on Thursday after the death of a passenger suspected of having Ebola raised concerns the virus may have spread on board, officials said.
Authorities deployed a mobile laboratory to the vessel after it was stopped in Maluku, around 65km (40 miles) upstream from the capital on Wednesday.
The secretary general of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s health ministry, Body Ilonga Bompoko, said all passengers were undergoing temperature checks and clinical screening.
He told reporters samples had been collected from four passengers with symptoms including fever and sent for testing, with results expected on Friday.
The operation was launched after health authorities in Mongala province reported the death on July 25 of a 32-year-old man suspected of having Ebola who was believed to have travelled on the vessel.
Officials have given differing accounts of the man’s movements and where he may have contracted the virus.