US doctor infected with Ebola in Congo admitted to isolation ward at Berlin hospital

BERLIN, May 20 — A US doctor who contracted Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo during the current deadly outbreak has been admitted to an isolation ward in a German hospital, health officials told AFP Wednesday.

The patient—named as medical missionary Dr Peter Stafford—arrived in Germany overnight Tuesday to Wednesday, after the United States requested Berlin’s help in treating him.

“I can confirm that the US citizen who was infected with the Ebola virus in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has been admitted to the special isolation unit at the Charite” hospital in Berlin, a health ministry spokeswoman said.

The ministry declined to comment on his condition.

On arrival in Germany, the man disembarked from a plane wearing a white protective suit and a mask and was helped into an ambulance by people also wearing protective gear, the Bild newspaper reported.

Together with six other people with whom he had come into contact—thought to include his family members—Stafford was flown on to Berlin and transported in a convoy of vehicles to hospital, the newspaper reported.

Stafford lives in the DRC with his wife Rebekah, also a doctor, and their four young children, according to the Christian missionary organisation Serge.

German officials have declined to comment on whether Stafford’s family—who have shown no symptoms—or another doctor who treated Ebola patients alongside Stafford would also be brought to 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.

Serge said Stafford was exposed while treating patients at Nyankunde hospital, where he had worked since 2023.

The World Health Organization has declared the Ebola outbreak in the DRC, which has killed more than 130 people, an international health emergency. — AFP