One of the two doctors brought back to the Netherlands after coming into connect with ebola patients in Sierra Leone actually has malaria, a spokesman for the public health institute RIVM said on Sunday.

‘The doctor was admitted to hospital with a temperature on Saturday evening – which is a sign of both ebola and malaria,’ the spokesman said. ‘Tests have shown he has malaria.’

The two doctors worked for the Lion Heart Foundation at a hospital in Sierra Leone. They arrived back in the Netherlands a week ago.

However, the incubation period for ebola is three weeks, so the doctors cannot yet be given the all-clear.