France has confirmed its first-ever case of Ebola on its territory after a doctor returning from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which is battling a major outbreak of the disease, tested positive.
Gatekeepers News reports that the case marks the first detection of Ebola outside Africa during the current outbreak, which has also affected Uganda.
In a statement on Wednesday, the French Health Ministry announced that it had identified “a first positive case of Ebola virus disease on national territory.”
According to the ministry, the patient boarded a commercial flight from Kinshasa and showed only mild symptoms before departure.
“The patient boarded a commercial flight from Kinshasa and was almost asymptomatic — except for headaches,” the ministry said.
Officials disclosed that the individual’s condition “slightly deteriorated during the flight,” prompting immediate isolation and medical care upon arrival in Paris, even before Ebola was formally diagnosed.
The ministry said the patient remains in a stable condition and has a very low viral load.
Authorities have begun tracing individuals who may have come into contact with the patient, while Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu’s office said the situation was being monitored “very closely.”
Despite the development, the Health Ministry stressed that the risk of transmission remains low.
International humanitarian organisation ALIMA (Alliance for International Medical Action) later confirmed that the infected individual is one of its doctors.
The current Ebola outbreak in the DRC was officially declared on May 15 following a series of unexplained deaths in the conflict-affected Ituri Province in the country’s east.
Official figures indicate that more than 1,000 infections and 267 deaths have been recorded so far, representing a fatality rate of approximately 25 per cent.
Health experts believe the true scale of the outbreak may be larger than reported due to the difficulties of monitoring remote and insecure regions.
The outbreak is being driven by the Bundibugyo strain of the Ebola virus, for which there is currently no approved vaccine or specific treatment.
Existing Ebola vaccines developed between 2018 and 2019 are effective only against the Zaire strain, which was responsible for previous major outbreaks.
In May, an American surgeon who contracted Ebola in the DRC was evacuated to Germany for treatment. The doctor, Peter Stafford of the Serge charity, later recovered and was discharged after 17 days of treatment, which included experimental therapies being tested against the virus.
Public health experts continue to assess the risk of wider international spread as relatively low.
“The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) considers the risk of infection to be low for European residents and travelers going to areas with active transmission, and very low for the general European population,” the French Health Ministry said.
