France has confirmed the first Ebola case detected in Europe since the start of the outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, health authorities said on Wednesday.
A humanitarian aid doctor who returned from the Central African country tested positive for the virus, the French Health Ministry said. The man was taken to hospital and isolated immediately after his arrival to eliminate any risk of transmission.
The patient's condition is stable, according to the French ministry.
Contact tracing is under way, with those identified as having been in contact with the physician required to remain in home quarantine for 21 days.
The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) later confirmed that the case in France was "the first imported case of Ebola disease in Europe since the current outbreak began."
The World Health Organization's Europe branch said in early June there were no active Ebola cases in the European Union and no local transmission, and that the overall risk remained low in the region.
A US doctor suffering from a known Ebola infection had been airlifted to Germany in mid-May and treated at Berlin's Charité hospital. He has since been discharged after making a recovery.
More than 1,000 confirmed cases in Congo
Ebola is a life-threatening disease transmitted through bodily contact and contact with bodily fluids.
Since the outbreak was announced in May, the number of confirmed cases in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has risen to more than 1,000.
According to the Information Ministry in Kinshasa, more than 260 people have died among confirmed Ebola patients in three north-eastern provinces of the country.
