KAMPALA (AFP) - Uganda said on Friday a man put in isolation with fever had tested negative for the deadly tropical disease Ebola.

"The results came in and it is not a case," said health ministry spokesman Rukia Nakamatte.

The passenger was the first to be tested in east Africa in the current outbreak sweeping west Africa, although Uganda has suffered Ebola outbreaks in the past, most recently in 2012.

The patient was stopped as he arrived in Uganda's main Entebbe airport showing signs of fever, after arriving from neighbouring South Sudan, where no cases of the Ebola virus have been reported. Reports of a case in late July in northern Uganda also proved to be a false alarm.

Ebola has claimed at least 932 lives and infected more than 1,700 people since breaking out in west Africa earlier this year, according to the World Health Organization.

Uganda, with its past experience of Ebola, has sent a medical team to west Africa to help.

Nations across east Africa have said they have boosted measures to combat possible Ebola cases arriving in their countries. Kenya and Ethiopia, home to some of Africa's largest transport hubs, last month said they had set up screening points at airports.