Germany is readying to admit and treat a US doctor who contracted Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo during the current deadly outbreak, the health ministry told AFP on Tuesday.
The patient was named as medical missionary Dr Peter Stafford, who lives in the DRC with his wife Rebekah, also a doctor, and their four young children, by the Christian missionary organisation Serge.
“US authorities have requested assistance from the German government in treating a US citizen who contracted Ebola in Congo,” a German health ministry spokeswoman said.
READ ALSO: Estimated DR Congo Ebola Death Toll Jumps To 131
“Preparations are currently underway to admit and treat the patient in Germany,” the spokeswoman added, referring to Germany’s health network for “patients with diseases caused by highly pathogenic agents”.
The ministry later specified that “the patient will be admitted and treated in the special isolation ward of the Charite hospital in Berlin”.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had said Monday that the American had contracted the virus following exposure related “to their work” in the DRC and had tested positive late Sunday.
Missions group Serge said Stafford was exposed while treating patients at Nyankunde hospital, where he had worked since 2023.
The group said it was “grateful for international cooperation to safely care for” the family of six and another doctor who had been treating Ebola patients, Patrick LaRochelle.
It said the doctors and the family would be treated “in a location where they can undergo continued risk monitoring and receive specialised medical care”.
The German ministry did not say whether LaRochelle and Stafford’s wife and family, who had shown no symptoms, would also be flown to Germany.
The World Health Organization has declared the Ebola outbreak in the DRC an international health emergency.
The toll from the outbreak, caused by the Bundibugyo strain of the virus, has risen to an estimated 131 deaths from 513 suspected cases, Congolese health minister Samuel Roger Kamba said on Tuesday.
The outbreak’s epicentre is in the northeastern province of Ituri, on the border with Uganda and South Sudan. The area’s status as a gold-mining hub leads to people regularly crisscrossing the region.
No vaccine or treatment exists for the Bundibugyo strain of the disease, which has killed more than 15,000 people in Africa in the past half-century.
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Tuesday he was “deeply concerned about the scale and speed of the epidemic” of the highly contagious haemorrhagic fever.
