A US national who contracted Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has arrived in Germany for treatment, the health ministry in Berlin announced on Monday. This development comes weeks after another American infected with Ebola in the DRC was treated in Berlin.
The new American patient, a humanitarian worker in his 60s, landed in Frankfurt overnight and was transferred to the city’s university hospital. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the patient was working in Bunia, the capital of the north-eastern Ituri province of the DRC, which is the center of an ongoing Ebola outbreak.
The WHO had provided the infected man with clinical care and close monitoring before his transfer to Germany. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stated that the patient has been safely transferred to Germany for continued follow-up care. The patient was a full-time employee of the Christian aid group Samaritan’s Purse, working as a warehouse manager in the DRC.
The DRC’s ongoing outbreak is caused by the Bundibugyo strain of the virus, for which there is no vaccine or cure. The outbreak has resulted in more than 1,900 confirmed cases and over 700 confirmed deaths, according to the WHO. The German health ministry emphasized that the US patient represents no danger for the general population or for other patients in the Frankfurt hospital.
The Trump administration has also taken measures to prevent the spread of Ebola, announcing that it will block American citizens in the DRC from traveling to the US on commercial flights. US citizens in the DRC or those who have recently left will be placed on a ‘do-not-board’ list until they have spent at least 21 days in a third country.
The US state department will support affected American citizens during the waiting period. The decision to bar Americans from traveling to the US is being made under a transportation authority known as Title 49. Ebola spreads through direct contact with bodily fluids from infected people or animals and can cause symptoms such as high fever, vomiting, and internal and external bleeding.
