Anthrax ruled out in ship death

Canada has lifted a quarantine on the seaman's ship

Medical officials in Brazil have ruled out anthrax as the cause of an Egyptian sailor's death.

It was feared that seaman Ibrahim Saved Soliman Ibrahim had been exposed to anthrax after an autopsy indicated the presence of the poison.

He found dead in his cabin on the ship Wadi al Arab on April 11, a few days after arriving in Brazil by plane from Cairo.

But, after conducting a second examination and doing tests on the ship, officials in Brazil and Canada found no evidence of anthrax - although they say they still do not know what killed the sailor.

The vessel was shipping a cargo of bauxite from Brazil to Canada and quarantine measures - imposed by Canada after it received word of the possible anthrax-related death - have now been lifted.

A first autopsy found the sailor had suffered from vomiting, internal bleeding and multiple organ failure, but also discovered an indication of anthrax.

All the rest of the crew has been, and continues to be in good shape

Health Ministry official Bob Fawler

This prompted speculation that a suitcase he was given in Cairo and asked to deliver to someone in Canada may have held the substance.

Confusing bacteria

"What I can say is that it is not anthrax," said Claudio Guimaraes, director of the Legal Medical Institute in the Amazon city of Belem.

Canadian health officials had quarantined the ship around the port of Halifax on the Atlantic coast, amid fears anthrax was about to be carried into the country.

AFP news agency quoted Health Ministry official Bob Fawler as saying they had lifted the measures after hearing the autopsy results.

"Health Canada has received the official word from the Brazilian health officials that the crew member did not die from anthrax," he said.

"All the rest of the crew has been, and continues to be in good shape... there is no reason to detain the ship," he added.

Some health experts say the confusion may have been caused by the discovery of a bacteria in the crew member's body that looked like anthrax.