American doctor contracted Ebola and transferred to Germany for treatment
Quick Look
- Stafford, an American doctor who contracted the Ebola virus while practicing medicine in the Democratic Republic of Congo, has arrived in Berlin, Germany for treatment.
- The outbreak, caused by a rare strain of the Bundibugyo virus, has killed at least 131 people, and the WHO declared it a public health emergency of international concern.
AI-generated summary
(Central News Agency, Washington/Berlin, Comprehensive Foreign Reports on the 19th) A US citizen who contracted the Ebola virus while practicing medicine in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is currently traveling to Germany for treatment. According to the missionary group, the doctor was so weak that he could barely stand on his own before taking the flight for treatment.
Reuters and NBC News reported that the infected American doctor was confirmed to be medical missionary Peter Stafford, who works for the Christian missionary organization Serge.
The leader of the religious group said that before the local epidemic broke out, Stafford had unknowingly performed an operation on a patient diagnosed with latent Ebola disease.
The German government confirmed earlier today that after receiving a request for assistance from U.S. officials, it was now ready to admit the patient to a special isolation ward at Berlin's Charite University Hospital.
The outbreak in eastern Democratic Congo belongs to the rare Bundibugyo virus strain and has claimed at least 131 lives. The World Health Organization (WHO) has recently officially declared that this wave of epidemic has constituted a "public health emergency of international concern".
There is currently no approved vaccine or treatment for the Bundibugyo strain, which has a fatality rate of up to 40%.
However, there is currently a vaccine called Ervebo. Although it is mainly used to deal with the Zaire virus strain, animal experiments show that it also provides partial protection against the Bundibugyo virus strain.
The U.S. State Department said today that it will fund the establishment of 50 treatment clinics in affected areas in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, and the Republic of Congo, to assist partners in providing emergency Ebola virus screening, triage, and isolation services, and to establish control zones around infected areas.
The funds will be allocated primarily through the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) administered by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) stated that Ebola testing tools currently on the market can effectively identify this virus strain, and the overall risk to the United States remains low.
