France detects first Ebola case outside Africa in current outbreak

PARIS – France on June 24 announced its first confirmed case of Ebola identified on its territory, a doctor who had flown back from the Democratic Republic of Congo, which is fighting a major outbreak.

The case is the first of the deadly haemorrhagic fever identified outside the African continent during the current outbreak, which has also affected Uganda.

It is the first time France has detected Ebola. In 2014, during an outbreak in west Africa, two patients were transported to France, but they had been diagnosed abroad.

The health ministry said it had identified “a first positive case of Ebola virus disease on national territory”.

The patient, who arrived in Paris on June 23, “boarded a commercial flight from Kinshasa and was almost asymptomatic – except for headaches”, the ministry said.

The doctor’s condition “slightly deteriorated during the flight”, after which the patient was immediately isolated and taken into care upon landing in Paris, even before the disease was officially identified, the ministry added.

The patient was in a “stable condition” with a “very low” viral load, the ministry added.

The doctor travelled on an Air France flight, the airline said, adding that it had provided the passenger list to the authorities.

“Contact with these passengers is being handled by the health authorities,” Air France said.

Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu’s office said he was monitoring the situation “very closely”, but the health ministry stressed that the risk of transmission remained low.

The World Health Organization chief, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said on June 24 the global risk “remains low”.

ALIMA (The Alliance for International Medical Action), an international medical humanitarian organisation, said the patient was one of its doctors.

The group said it was seeking to “understand how the contamination could have occurred”.

Humanitarian workers are normally required to undergo a three-week quarantine after contact with infected cases.

According to diplomatic sources, meetings will be held later on June 24 to discuss an appropriate course of action, particularly regarding movement restrictions.

The DRC’s 17th Ebola outbreak was declared on May 15 after several unexplained deaths in the mineral-rich eastern Ituri province plagued by armed groups.

According to the latest official figures, more than 1,000 cases have been recorded, including 267 deaths, representing a fatality rate of around 25 per cent.

Many experts consider it likely that the scale of the outbreak has been underestimated, as it is affecting remote regions.

The Bundibugyo strain of the virus that has caused the outbreak has no approved vaccine or treatment.

Existing Ebola vaccines, developed between 2018 and 2019, are only effective against the Zaire strain, which caused previous major outbreaks.

In May, an American surgeon who contracted Ebola in the DRC was flown to Germany for treatment.

A Berlin hospital discharged the missionary earlier this month, saying he had recovered following 17 days of medical care.

The doctor, identified as Peter Stafford of the Serge charity, had received care that included “experimental therapies currently being trialled for this type of virus”, said the hospital.

Public health experts estimate that the risk of the outbreak spreading worldwide remains low, due to the relatively low contagiousness of the Ebola virus. AFP