WHO received notification of a laboratory-confirmed case of Ebola virus disease (EVD) in Italy. This is the first EVD case to be detected on Italian soil.

The patient is a healthcare worker who has returned from volunteering at an Ebola treatment centre in Sierra Leone. The arrival of the case had been communicated to the Ministry of Health, according to the health surveillance procedures in force since October 2014 for individuals coming back from Ebola affected countries in West Africa. At the arrival in Rome, the case displayed no symptoms of infectious Ebola.

72 hours after his return to Italy, the patient developed symptoms. The patient self-isolated at home and was transported to the infectious diseases ward of the Hospital of Sassari, Sardinia. Clinical samples have been tested by the national reference centre of the National Institute for Infectious Diseases (INMI) Lazzaro Spallanzani of Rome, confirming EVD infection.