Glasgow: Reacting to sensationalistic headlines such as “Ebola Terror at Commonwealth Games” in an English newspaper, officials said on Friday that a Sierra Leone athlete passed tests for the Ebola virus and competed.

“There is no Ebola in the athletes’ village,” a games statement said. “We can confirm an athlete was tested for a number of things when he fell ill last week, including Ebola. The tests were negative and the athlete competed in his event on Thursday.

“We are dismayed by some of the sensational and misleading headlines to date and request that these are not repeated.”

Mike Hooper, chief executive of the Commonwealth Games Federation, added, “The headlines and the reports were not only sensationalist, but irresponsible.”

Local media named the athlete as road cyclist Moses Sesay, 32, of Sierra Leone. He was admitted to a Glasgow hospital last week after feeling unwell, and doctors tested him for various conditions, including Ebola — which is blamed for more than 700 deaths in an outbreak in three West African countries, including Sierra Leone.

Sesay was passed fit, and released from hospital in time to compete in the men’s individual time trial on Thursday, when he finished 56th and last of those who completed the race.

“I was admitted for four days and they tested me for Ebola. It came back negative but they did it again, and this time sent it to London, where it was also negative,” Sesay was quoted by local media as saying.

Dr Colin Ramsay, of Health Protection Scotland, told BBC Radio Scotland: “There’s been no program of actively screening athletes simply because of the Commonwealth Games.

“The situation is that if someone presents with symptoms suggestive of the possibility of Ebola virus infection and who has come from a country affected by the current outbreak — and that’s Sierra Leone and Guinea and Liberia — they would be investigated accordingly, and that would involve managing them with a set of standard precautions.”

On Thursday, Seychelles forfeited an African Cup qualifying game and withdrew from the competition rather than allow Sierra Leone’s squad to travel to the Indian Ocean island because of fears over the spread of Ebola.