France has recorded its first case of Ebola virus infection, AFP reports.
According to France’s Health Ministry, the virus was detected in a doctor who had returned from a humanitarian mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
“Today, the first positive case of disease caused by the Ebola virus has been confirmed on national territory,” the ministry said in a statement.
A ministry representative told AFP that the case was registered in mainland France.
The patient is in isolation. Authorities are identifying the people with whom he had contact and carrying out the necessary anti-epidemic measures.
The Health Ministry stressed, however, that the risk of the disease spreading among the population of France and Europe as a whole remains low.
According to the World Health Organization, more than 1,000 people have been infected during the current Ebola outbreak in DR Congo, and the death toll has reached 267. The WHO notes that this is the largest outbreak of the disease by the number of confirmed cases in the first month among all previously recorded Ebola epidemics.
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