An American humanitarian worker infected with Ebola has arrived in Germany for treatment, German health authorities have confirmed. The patient landed in Frankfurt overnight before being transferred to the city’s university hospital for specialised care.
World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the patient had been working in Bunia, the capital of Ituri Province in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which is the epicentre of the country’s latest Ebola outbreak. “The patient has been safely transferred to Germany for continued follow-up care,” Tedros said in a post on X.
He added that the WHO had provided the patient with clinical care and close monitoring before the transfer. The DRC declared its 17th Ebola outbreak in mid-May. The outbreak is caused by the Bundibugyo strain of the virus, for which there is currently no approved vaccine or specific treatment.
According to the WHO, more than 1,900 confirmed cases and over 700 confirmed deaths have been recorded during the current outbreak. Germany’s health ministry stressed that the patient poses no risk to the general public or other patients at the Frankfurt hospital. “The risk of someone infected with Ebola entering Germany is very low,” the ministry said.
The ministry explained that US authorities requested Germany’s assistance because of its experience in treating Ebola patients and the shorter travel distance from the DRC compared to the United States.
The latest transfer comes just weeks after another American Ebola patient was treated at Berlin’s Charité Hospital. That patient, who was quarantined alongside family members, recovered after two weeks of treatment.