France Reports First Ebola Case in Current African Outbreak

France’s Health Ministry said on Wednesday that it has recorded its first Ebola case in the country during the current outbreak in Africa. The patient is a doctor who had returned from a humanitarian mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where a major outbreak is underway. He was taken directly to a specialist hospital on arrival, is in stable condition, and remains isolated under strict safety measures.

French authorities opened a broad epidemiological investigation to identify everyone who came into contact with him. All close contacts will be required to isolate at home for 21 days, including five passengers who sat near him on the flight to France. The ministry said the risk to the general public in France and Europe remains very low and that there is no evidence of local spread.

World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus also urged calm, saying that in the last 50 years fewer than 30 Ebola cases have been detected outside Africa. French officials said detection and isolation systems worked as planned and that precautions were activated immediately after the patient arrived to prevent further infection.

Meanwhile, Congo tightened departure restrictions, requiring anyone in outbreak areas to complete a 21-day quarantine before traveling abroad. The outbreak there is considered especially severe: according to Congolese authorities and the WHO, more than 1,000 people have been infected and hundreds have died. The disease is being driven by the Bundibugyo strain, for which there is currently no approved vaccine or specific treatment, and experts believe it circulated for months before being officially declared in May and has already spread to urban areas and displacement camps. Separately, a report published in Walla said Israel’s Health Ministry has begun special preparations, including restoring a dedicated Ebola isolation tent at a cost of up to 513,000 shekels.