© UnknownPanoramic view of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Rio's state health ministry said the man, whose name was not given, succumbed to a hemorrhagic disease on Tuesday after falling ill on November 25, two days after arriving in Brazil to attend conferences.
He was taken to hospital with fever, vomiting, blood in his urine and rashes.
Doctors suspected he had contracted an arenavirus, a highly contagious group of viruses that includes Lassa fever, an infection endemic to west Africa that typically spreads to humans from proximity to rodents or from infected people's secretions.
Dengue, malaria and ebola had all been ruled out, the ministry said.
While tests were being carried out, hospital staff who had treated him were being observed to see if they showed any symptoms.
Results from the tests should be known by the weekend, the health ministry said.
Officials said the Pan American Health Organization and South African consulate had been informed of the case, and that the man's body would be sent back to South Africa in a sealed metal casket.
A specialist at the Rio lab testing the man's blood samples, Jose Cerbino Neto, told a media conference: "The South African was infected by a very aggressive virus which is still not identified."
He added that the man had "probably caught it in a hospital in Johannesburg, where he had an orthopedic operation two weeks before coming to Brazil.
"In that hospital, one patient from Zambia and three doctors are dead from an arenavirus, and one nurse is in serious condition."
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