Seven illegal immigrants from India who have been diagnosed with malaria and are undergoing hospital treatment on Syros do not pose a threat to public health, a government agency said yesterday.

Preliminary tests conducted on the seven migrants, who were intercepted on the island at the end of last month, revealed signs of malaria and dengue fever (also known as breakbone fever) but a second round of tests will give a conclusive verdict, the health ministry’s Center for Infectious Diseases Control (KEEL) said yesterday. Neither of the diseases can be transmitted from human to human and “there is absolutely no threat to public health in our country,” KEEL said.

The migrants are said to have a high fever, inflammation of the liver and spleen and anemia but to be in a stable condition.

Biological samples have been sent to laboratories in Patras and Thessaloniki to test for a series of tropical diseases which may have provoked these symptoms.