Congo outbreak toll surpasses 1,900 cases, WHO reports
A U.S. national who contracted Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo arrived in Germany for treatment Monday, the German health ministry said, weeks after another American infected with the virus was treated in Berlin.
The patient, in his 60s, landed in Frankfurt overnight and was transferred to the city’s university hospital, according to the health ministry. The German authorities said the man posed “no danger for the general population or for other patients” at the hospital, adding that “the risk of someone infected with Ebola entering Germany is very low.”
World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on X that the man was a “humanitarian worker” who had been in Bunia, the capital of the north-eastern Ituri province of the DRC. The WHO provided “clinical care and close monitoring” before the transfer, Tedros said, adding: “The patient has been safely transferred to Germany for continued follow-up care.”
An official working for the Christian aid group Samaritan’s Purse confirmed to Reuters that the patient was a full-time employee of the organization working as a warehouse manager in the DRC.
The new patient’s arrival comes just weeks after another American with the Bundibugyo strain was quarantined with his family at Berlin’s Charité hospital at the end of May and made a recovery after two weeks of treatment. U.S. authorities requested German assistance because of the country’s expertise in treating Ebola cases and the shorter flight time from the DRC to Germany compared with the United States, the German health ministry said.
The DRC’s ongoing outbreak, which the government declared in mid-May, is the country’s 17th recorded Ebola epidemic. It is caused by the Bundibugyo strain of the virus — a rare variant for which there is no vaccine or cure. More than 1,900 confirmed cases and more than 700 confirmed deaths have been reported, according to the WHO.