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France Confirms First Ebola Case Outside Africa
Confirmed
In Short: A French humanitarian worker has tested positive for Ebola after returning from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, marking the first case in France and outside Africa in this outbreak.
A patient in France has tested positive for Ebola after returning from a humanitarian mission in an area where the virus is circulating in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the French Health Ministry confirmed on Wednesday.
The case marks the first reported case in France and the first to test positive outside of Africa amid the second large Ebola outbreak on record in DRC, where at least 277 people have died in the current outbreak.
The patient, who is in stable condition, was immediately admitted to a specialized facility upon their return. Officials are scaling up response efforts but caution that contact tracing remains a critical challenge.
Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu, head of the WHO Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence, emphasized the importance of thorough contact tracing and noted that less than 30 Ebola cases have been reported outside of Africa since the first outbreak about half a century ago.
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- A patient in France has tested positive for Ebola after returning from a humanitarian mission in an area where the virus is circulating in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the French Health Ministry said…
- It marks the first reported case in France and the first to test positive outside of Africa amid the second large Ebola outbreak on record in DRC.
- At least 277 people in DRC and two in Uganda have died in the outbreak, according to the latest World Health Organization data.
- The patient in France, who has not been publicly identified, is in stable condition after being “immediately admitted to a specialized facility” upon their return, the French Health Ministry said in a statement.
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- “The challenge with Ebola is that even 99.9% is not good enough. We have to keep pushing to the very end to get all new cases emerging from known contact lists, which is the most important criteria for success of an…
- “Whenever a case happens in Europe or other parts of the world outside Africa, I see overreaction, but I don’t think overreaction is needed,” he said at a news conference Wednesday.
- Less than 30 Ebola cases have been reported outside of Africa since the first outbreak about a half century ago, he said.