A patient hospitalised in Sofia with symptoms similar to those of Ebola hasn't been infected with the deadly virus, BNT TV station reported on Friday.

The patient, who had recently returned from Sierra Leone, was hospitalised with high body temperature and fever in Sofia's Military Hospital on Thursday. 

Tests of the 57-year old patient have shown that he wasn't infected with Ebola, BNT said.

Twenty-five people suspected to have been in contact with the patient were placed under medical observation on Thursday. They were released later after suspicions they might have been infected were dropped, Deputy Health Minister Vanyo Sharkov told Nova TV.

Bulgaria's Health Minister Petar Moskov is expected to give a news conference at 8 EET (6 UTC).

Todor Kantardzhiev, Director of the National Center of Infectious Diseases in Sofia, told BNT that if tests conducted on a national basis were negative, there was no need to send medical samples from patients suspected to have been infected with Ebola to international laboratories.

The Bulgarian specialists who had tested the samples taken from the Sofia patient are experienced enough to state the samples weren't infected with Ebola virus, Kantardzhiev said.