There are no confirmed or suspected cases of Ebola in Ireland, the HSE has insisted.

It issued a statement after a website reported that the Mater Hospital in Dublin was preparing for the arrival of a patient suspected of having the disease.

The Ebola outbreak in West Africa, which has killed over 1,000 people, has been referred to as ‘an extraordinary event' by the World Health Organisation.

Ebola virus disease is a severe and often fatal illness. It is initially transmitted to humans from wild animals, but human-to-human transmission can then occur as a result of direct contact with the blood, secretions, organs or other bodily fluids of infected people, or indirect contact with environments that have been contaminated with these fluids.

Symptoms include the sudden onset of fever, headache, sore throat, muscle pain and weakness. This is then followed by diarrhoea, vomiting, rash and impaired liver and kidney function. Internal and external bleeding, including bleeding from the eyes, can also occur.

Those affected require intensive care and there is currently no treatment or vaccine available. Where an outbreak occurs, the case fatality rate can reach 90%.

The Health Protection Surveillance Centre has been reminding anyone who has travelled to Ireland from any of the affected regions - Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea and Nigeria - to seek urgent medical attention if they develop a fever or unexplained fatigue within 21 days.

However, following the report relating to the Mater, the HSE has said there are no suspected cases of Ebola in Ireland.

"The National Isolation Unit in the Mater Hospital is used for patients with a variety of infectious diseases," it commented.