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First European Ebola Case Confirmed as Congo Outbreak Grows Beyond Its Borders

The Paris diagnosis tests cross-border surveillance as health agencies speed contact tracing, home quarantines and clinical trials for a strain with no licensed vaccine.

Overview

  • French health authorities confirmed a humanitarian doctor tested positive for Ebola after travel from the DR Congo and isolated the patient at Paris’s Hospital Bichat.
  • Five passengers who shared the KinshasaParis flight were identified and placed under 21-day home quarantine as part of contact-tracing measures.
  • The epidemic in the DR Congo has reached roughly 1,115 reported cases and 304 deaths and has spread to other provinces and to Uganda, which has reported around 20 cases and two deaths.
  • Health responders face major obstacles in Ituri, including attacks on clinics, disinformation and the flight of suspected patients, which have forced NGOs to withdraw staff and hampered containment.
  • The outbreak is driven by the Bundibugyo strain for which no licensed vaccine or specific treatment exists, so WHO and partners are accelerating surveillance and starting clinical trials of candidate therapies.