A Nigerian national who was quarantined in South Korea with a high fever has tested negative for the Ebola virus, health authorities here said Friday.

The 39-year-old man, who arrived in the country on Thursday via a flight that took off from Doha, Qatar, had a body temperature of 38.2 degrees Celsius upon arrival, according to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Because he did not clearly state why he wanted to enter the country, he was put on another plane heading for Doha early Friday, but the jet had to return to Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul, after he experienced a high fever again.

"It appears that it isn't Ebola," said an official at the Ministry of Health and Welfare. "For now, we will keep him in quarantine and decide whether to conduct a second round of tests depending on the results of a malaria test, which are expected to come out soon."

The Ebola hemorrhagic fever is an epidemic that has swept across some parts of Western Africa, including Nigeria, claiming thousands of lives.

"The man is a resident of Aba, a Nigerian city 500 kilometers from Lagos, where Ebola cases have been reported," a health official said.

(Yonhap)