French officials on June 24 confirmed the first case of Ebola in the country, saying that a humanitarian worker who had travelled to Congo, where an outbreak began in May, tested positive for the virus.
The aid worker was admitted to a special healthcare facility and is in stable condition, the Health Ministry said in a statement.
French health workers are racing to trace anyone who may have come in contact with the person. Contacts will have to be isolated for 21 days and will be closely monitored, the ministry said.
The risk of infection remained low for residents of the European Union, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.
Congo is the centre of the outbreak. At least 260 people have died and there have been more than 1,000 confirmed cases, according to the World Health Organization. Most of the cases are in the north-eastern Ituri province.
Many in the region have been displaced by conflict, creating conditions for the rapid spread of the virus and making it difficult to contain.
The outbreak is the 17th in Congo in recent decades, and it has tested the country’s expertise and resources. The type of Ebola virus behind this outbreak, known as Bundibugyo, is rare, with no targeted vaccines or treatment.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
