India man quarantined over Ebola; Cuban doctor catches virus in Liberia

India has quarantined a man who was cured of Ebola in Liberia but continued to show traces of the virus in his semen, the Indian Health Ministry said. Officials in India — the world’s second-most populous country, with 1.2 billion people — have screened thousands of passengers traveling from Ebola-hit West Africa in recent weeks.

Separately, a member of Cuba's highly acclaimed medical team battling Ebola in Sierra Leone caught the disease when he rushed to help a patient who was falling over, his brother told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

In India, the Health Ministry issued a statement saying that one of the country’s nationals had been quarantined as a precautionary measure when he arrived at New Delhi’s airport on Nov. 10, and that tests later detected traces of the virus in his semen. The man "may have the possibility of transmitting the disease through sexual route up to 90 days from time of clinical cure," the ministry said.

The dangerous virus, which has killed more than 5,000 people in Africa this year, is transmitted through direct contact with bodily fluids — saliva, sweat, blood, semen and other secretions — from a person who is experiencing symptoms. The incubation period usually ranges from two to 21 days, according to UNICEF. However, some health officials have said the virus can persist in semen for 70 to 90 days.

The Indian national will be kept in quarantine until the virus is no longer present in his body, and will undergo tests over the next 10 days or so, a senior Health Ministry official said.

"It is not an Ebola case. He is an Ebola-treated patient who is negative in blood but whose body fluid is positive. He has no symptoms," the official said, declining to be named because of the sensitivity of the matter.

Peter Piot, a former World Health Organization (WHO) official who was one of the discoverers of the virus, has in the past expressed concerns about the disease spreading to India. There are nearly 45,000 Indian nationals living in West Africa.

A number of experts have said densely populated India is not adequately prepared to handle any spread of the highly infectious hemorrhagic fever. Government health services are overburdened, and many people in rural areas struggle to get access to even basic health services.

Meanwhile, a member of the medical team Cuba sent to fight Ebola in Sierra Leone has been diagnosed with the disease and is being treated by British doctors in Africa, medical officials said Wednesday.

Felix Baez Sarria was set to be transferred during the next 48 hours for medical treatment in Geneva, the Swiss government said. It said a private American airline had been hired for the flight.

State media said Baez, an internal medicine specialist, came down with a fever of more than 100 degrees on Sunday and was diagnosed with Ebola the following day. Cuban officials did not say how he caught the disease or immediately release any other information about the case, the first reported among the health workers the island-nation sent to Africa.

Sarria's older brother, Michel Gutiérrez Sarria, said he has not been in direct contact with his brother since he fell ill. But he said the family has been told that the doctor, a married father of two, caught Ebola when he saw a sick person toppling over and his "instinct to help" kicked in, apparently prompting him to violate the strict protocols designed to protect medical workers from Ebola.

"He saw someone who was falling, and went to help them and it seems like that's how he got contaminated," Gutiérrez said.

Cuba won global praise for sending at least 256 medical workers to Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea to help treat Ebola patients. State officials say the doctors, nurses and support staff have received weeks of instruction in protective measures and equipment.

Once in Africa, the Cubans got two to three weeks of additional training before heading into the field. They were to be quarantined in Africa for weeks at the end of their six-month mission before returning to Cuba.

The current Ebola outbreak is the worst on record. It has killed at least 5,177 people, mostly in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea, according to the latest figures from the WHO.

Wire services