France has confirmed the country’s first case of Ebola during the current epidemic. A doctor who returned from a humanitarian mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) tested positive, the health ministry in Paris announced on Wednesday. TASR informs about it according to the agencies AFP and Reuters.
The patient is in isolation and the authorities are checking his previous contacts, the ministry said in a statement, adding that the risk to the general public in Europe is low. The department specified for AFP that the infection in the man was diagnosed in mainland France.
More than 1,000 cases of Ebola infection have been recorded in the DRC, of which 267 have died. The current outbreak, declared on May 15, has confirmed the highest number of cases of any known mass outbreak of Ebola in its first month, the World Health Organization (WHO) said.
The virus has also spread to neighboring Uganda, where the WHO has recorded 20 cases and two deaths. The epidemic is caused by a rare strain of the Bundibugyo virus, against which there is no approved vaccine or specific treatment. Current Ebola vaccines are only effective against the Zaire strain that caused previous major outbreaks. The WHO therefore declared a public health emergency of international concern and warned that the epidemic could last for several months.
