France has identified and isolated five people who may have been exposed to Ebola after sharing a flight with a doctor who tested positive for the virus. French Health Minister Stephanie Rist said on Wednesday (local time) that the doctor had worked in the Democratic Republic of the Congo before returning to France.

According to the minister, the patient is an "experienced doctor returning from a mission" who did not know he had contracted the virus. "He had no symptoms when he boarded the plane, and he was not contagious (...) As he is a doctor and developed headaches on the plane, he raised the alert" so that he could be taken care of upon arrival in Paris.