France has confirmed its first Ebola case connected to the ongoing outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The patient is a humanitarian doctor who recently returned from a mission in an area of the DRC where the virus has been actively circulating.
French health officials say the case was detected quickly, the necessary precautions are in place, and there is no indication of local spread.
The patient has been transferred to a specialist hospital and placed in isolation under strict biosafety protocols, including a negative pressure room and dedicated equipment.
“All precautionary measures, including the patient’s isolation, were taken upon his arrival in the country, with transfer to the hospital under secure conditions to prevent any risk of contamination,” the French Health Ministry said.
A thorough epidemiological investigation is underway to identify anyone who may have been in contact with the patient. Those individuals will be contacted without delay by the regional health agency and will undergo 21 days of home isolation under close monitoring.
The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control has assessed the risk of infection as low for European residents and travelers to areas of active transmission, and very low for the general European population.
A Rapidly Spreading Outbreak With No Approved Treatment
The DRC’s Ebola outbreak has been centered in the northeastern Ituri province since May, killing more than 260 people and infecting over a thousand. Cases have also been reported in neighboring Uganda. The WHO noted this week that the outbreak has generated the largest number of confirmed cases within the first month of any episode of the disease on record.
Critically, this outbreak is caused by the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, a rarer variety for which there are currently no approved vaccines or treatments, unlike the more common Ebola Zaire strain that caused previous major outbreaks in the DRC.
Efforts to find a treatment are underway. The US has provided doses of an experimental antibody drug developed by Mapp Biopharmaceutical for compassionate use in the DRC.
The drug, known as MBP134, will be tested both on its own and alongside Gilead’s antiviral remdesivir, which was widely used during the COVID-19 pandemic. A separate Gilead antiviral, obeldesivir, will also be tested as a potential preventive option, in a trial co-sponsored by France’s ANRS Emerging Infectious Diseases agency and led by the DRC, Uganda, and the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.
A US citizen who had been treated for Ebola in Germany was discharged earlier this month after no virus had been detected since May 30.
