France's first detected Ebola patient recovers, leaves hospital

A doctor who had tested positive for Ebola in the first such case on French territory has recovered and left the hospital, France's health minister said on Saturday.

The doctor tested positive after flying to France on June 23 from the Democratic Republic of Congo, which is fighting a major outbreak of the deadly haemorrhagic fever.

The physician "today left the medical establishment" and returned home, Health Minister Stéphanie Rist said in a statement.

The case was the first time France has detected Ebola. In 2014, during an outbreak in west Africa, two patients were transported to France, but they had been diagnosed abroad.

The doctor flew to France on an Air France flight and except for headaches was "almost asymptomatic".

Five other passengers on the flight had been identified as possible contacts and put in isolation as a precaution.

The Alliance for International Medical Action, an international medical humanitarian organisation, said at the time the patient was one of its doctors.

Humanitarian workers are normally required to undergo a three-week quarantine after contact with infected cases.

DR Congo's latest Ebola outbreak was declared on May 15 and has since killed at least 438 people among the 1,406 people confirmed to have been infected, according to the latest government figures released on July 2.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)