France has recorded its first case of Ebola from the current outbreak after a doctor who had been on a humanitarian mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo tested positive for the virus, French health authorities have confirmed.
The French health ministry said the doctor is being held in isolation and that contact tracing is under way to identify anyone who may have been exposed. Officials stressed that the risk to the wider European population remained low.
The case comes amid an extraordinarily rapid outbreak in the DRC that the World Health Organisation has described as the largest number of confirmed Ebola cases within the first month of any episode of the disease on record. Government data published on Tuesday showed the number of confirmed cases in the DRC had risen to 1,094, including 277 deaths — a death toll that underlines the severity of the current wave.
Ebola is spread through direct contact with the blood or bodily fluids of infected individuals and does not spread through the air, which is why health authorities have been quick to reassure the European public that the risk of wider transmission is limited. However, the appearance of a case in France serves as a reminder of the ease with which infectious diseases can travel internationally, particularly when healthcare workers return from outbreak zones.
French authorities have not released further details about the doctor’s condition or the precise timeline of their return from the DRC.
