HEALTH offiicials today said a man currently in isolation in Colchester General Hospital is highly unlikely to have the deadly disease Ebola.

The man, who is in his 50s, went to the accident and emergency department of the hospital at about 8.30am yesterday complaining of being feverish.

The alarm was raised because he is regularly travels to Africa.

However, a spokesman for Colchester Hospital University NHS Foundation Trust, said today he had not been to any countries which had Ebola or been in contact with any sufferers of the disease.

He said: "The consultant in charge of A and E alerted Public Health England and the patient was put into the isolation unit of the emergency department.

"The man had just returned from Africa via Kenya.

"Public Health England said there is no need to test him because he is low risk.

"He had not been to any of the countries which have Ebola or in contact with any patients with Ebola.

"We understand he had been to swampy areas of Africa and he is being treated as someone who has a fever.