The first patient with Ebola in France has fully recovered

France has officially confirmed the full recovery of the first—and so far only—patient diagnosed with the Ebola virus. The patient was a doctor who had returned from a humanitarian mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where he had come into contact with infected patients.

On July 4, Health Minister Stéphanie Rist announced that France’s first Ebola patient—a doctor who had been on a humanitarian mission in the Congo—had successfully recovered and been discharged from the hospital where he was being treated.

His diagnosis in late June marked the first such case in France during the current Ebola outbreak in the DRC and overall.

Five people who had been in contact with the doctor on the plane where he first began showing symptoms were also placed under quarantine.

In 2014, two patients were brought to France for treatment, but they had been diagnosed with the disease outside the country at that time.

Health experts consider the risk of the Ebola epidemic spreading beyond the outbreak area in the Congo to be negligible, as the virus is not highly contagious.

This was reported by BFMTV.

The WHOhas sounded the alarm over the rapid spread of the deadly Ebola virus.

The 17th Ebola outbreak has been recorded in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which has already claimed the lives of 80 people. This time, the disease was likely caused by the little-studied Bundibugyo ebolavirus strain, rather than the more common Zaire ebolavirus.

Ethiopia has reported its first outbreak of the Marburg virus, which is clinically similar to Ebola. The pathogen is capable of spreading rapidly, but there are no vaccines against it.