France Confirms First Ebola Case Linked To Congo Outbreak

PARIS, June 24 (dpa) -- France has confirmed its first Ebola case linked to the disease's outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the French Health Ministry said on Wednesday.

A humanitarian aid doctor who returned from the central African country tested positive, it said. The man, who is in a stable condition, was taken to hospital and isolated immediately after his arrival to avoid any risk of infection, the ministry added.

Contact tracing is under way, with those identified as having been in contact with the physician required to remain in quarantine at home for 21 days, the ministry said.

Shortly before the start of the football World Cup, the World Health Organization's Europe branch said there were no active Ebola cases in the European Union and no local transmission, and that the overall risk remained low. 

In the meantime, only a US doctor had been flown to Germany and treated at Berlin's Charité hospital. He has since been discharged after recovering.

Ebola is a life-threatening disease. The virus is transmitted through bodily contact and contact with bodily fluids. The current outbreak is particularly difficult to contain, partly because there is so far neither a vaccine nor a specific therapy for the Bundibugyo type of the Ebola virus.

Since the outbreak was announced in May, the number of confirmed cases in the Congo has risen to more than 1,000. According to the Information Ministry in Kinshasa, a total of more than 260 people have died among the confirmed Ebola patients in three north-eastern provinces of the country.

--NNN-dpa