LONDON: No suspected cases of Ebola have been found in Iraq, despite reports to the contrary in Iraqi media in the past week, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday.

Describing reports of suspect cases of the deadly viral infection in Mosul as “rumor,” the Geneva-based United Nations health agency said it and the Iraqi Health Ministry had conducted a full investigation.

“All sources contacted have negated the existence of any suspected cases of Ebola,” the WHO said in a statement.

“The (Iraqi) Ministry of Health and the World Health Organization further confirmed that the laboratory facilities in Mosul do not have the necessary capabilities to diagnose and confirm the Ebola virus.”

Reports of suspected Ebola cases appeared on Dec. 31 in Iraq’s Al-Sabah newspaper, Rudaw online newspaper and on the Shafaq news agency and were relayed through other media in and outside Iraq, prompting the WHO and Iraqi authorities to investigate.

Meanwhile, US pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson said Tuesday that it has started human trials on a possible vaccine against Ebola.

The Phase I testing is being carried out by the Oxford Vaccine Group at Britain’s Oxford University.

The tests, involving 72 healthy volunteers, will examine how their bodies tolerate the potential vaccine. Johnson & Johnson said at the end of October it would spend up to $200 million to speed up and expand its Ebola vaccine program.

The company hopes to move on to studies on large groups of patients by April.

It said it has already produced more than 400,000 doses, and two million courses will be ready by the end of the year.

If necessary, Johnson & Johnson said it can make five million doses within 12 to 18 months.

The death toll from the Ebola outbreak in west Africa has risen to 8,153 out of 20,656 cases recorded, the World Health Organization said Monday.

Almost all the deaths and cases have been recorded in the three west African countries worst hit by the outbreak: Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea.

Elsewhere, six people have died in Mali, one in the United States and eight in Nigeria, which was declared Ebola-free in October.

Spain and Senegal, which have both been declared free of Ebola, had one case each but no deaths.

Last week, Britain reported its first confirmed case of Ebola in a nurse recently returned from Sierra Leone. The woman was on Monday said to be in a critical but stable condition.