Durban, South Africa - A French medical laboratory in Lyons has dismissed any likelihood of Marburg haemorrhagic fever on board the bulk carrier Clipper Lancaster.
The ship is being held in quarantine off the Indian Ocean island of Reunion.
The nature of the mystery fever that claimed the life of a Romanian seafarer and left a second sailor seriously ill remains unidentified, however.
The two seafarers, members of a crew of 22, became ill soon after the 28 429 dead weight tonnage ship left Durban on June 5, where it had stopped briefly to refuel. The surviving crewman has been responding to treatment.
Before calling at Durban the ship had loaded lumber at Pointe Noire in Congo Brazza-ville and had called earlier at Angolan ports. A serious outbreak of Marburg fever is raging in northern Angola.
Authorities in La Reunion said the vessel would be allowed to continue its voyage to China once the body had been removed.
A postmortem would not be performed.