A French doctor who contracted Ebola after returning from a humanitarian mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has fully recovered and been discharged from hospital, marking the end of France’s first confirmed Ebola case linked to the ongoing outbreak.
Gatekeepers News reports that French Health Minister Stéphanie Rist announced that the doctor had responded well to treatment and no longer posed any health risk. The patient had been placed in strict isolation after testing positive shortly after arriving in France from the DRC, where a major Ebola outbreak involving the Bundibugyo strain has continued to spread.
Health authorities said precautionary measures, including contact tracing and monitoring of five passengers who were seated near the doctor during the flight to France, helped prevent further transmission. Officials have maintained that the risk to the general public remains very low because Ebola spreads through direct contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person rather than through the air.
The recovery comes as the DRC continues to battle one of its worst Ebola outbreaks in recent years. According to the World Health Organization, more than 1,400 confirmed infections and over 430 deaths have been recorded, while an international clinical trial for a potential treatment is now underway in the country to help contain the disease.
