(ANSA) - ROME, DEC 18 - Blood test results have shown that a 55-year-old man from Veneto died of malaria after a trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo, ruling out a mysterious fatal disease reported in the African country as the cause of death, the Spallanzani National Institute for Infectious Diseases said in a note sent to ANSA on Wednesday.
    The institute said it analysed blood samples "to search for different pathogen agents at the laboratory of Virology and the laboratories of Biosecurity".
    The same tests have ruled out the presence of other viral-bacterial co-infections, it said.
    The man died with fever and hemorrhaging after recently returning from a trip to the DRC.
    Congo's Ministry of Health has said the mystery disease is a severe form of malaria, but the World Health Organization has said the cause has not yet been established and laboratory tests are ongoing. (ANSA).