US doctor Dr Peter Stafford, who is infected with the Ebola virus, has arrived in Germany. He was taken to Berlin’s Charité university hospital, which has a highly specialised isolation unit.
The American doctor who contracted the Ebola virus has been airlifted to BER airport. From there, a special vehicle took him in a large convoy, accompanied among others by the police, on to Berlin’s Charité university hospital.
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He was accompanied by six close contacts, believed to include members of his family. Dr Peter Stafford and his wife, Dr Rebekah Stafford, are medical missionaries and belong to Serge, a Christian mission organisation based in Pennsylvania that focuses on medical and humanitarian aid abroad.
According to a press release issued by the organisation, he was infected with the rare Bundibugyo strain of the Ebola virus while treating patients at Nyankunde Hospital near the city of Bunia.
The couple moved to Africa in 2019 and have been working in Congo ever since.
Charité in Berlin has one of Germany’s largest and best equipped specialised high-level isolation units (SIS) for patients with highly contagious, life-threatening infectious diseases. It also plays a key role in national and international disease-control strategies.
Charité: Highly specialised care for epidemic diseases
The unit is completely separate from the hospital’s regular operations. It is equipped with special safety and hygiene systems, including separate access routes, airlocks, dedicated ventilation and filtration systems, and its own wastewater treatment. Specially trained staff work there.
The outbreak has triggered international concern and prompted the World Health Organization (WHO) to declare a public health emergency of international concern.
US health authorities have also introduced temporary travel restrictions for certain travellers from affected regions. So far, at least 80 people have died from the disease. Cases have been confirmed both in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where the outbreak was first detected, and in Uganda.
The Congolese Ministry of Health has so far reported 513 suspected cases and 131 suspected deaths. The Ebola virus is transmitted through direct physical contact and through contact with bodily fluids. During an outbreak of the Zaire variant in West Africa in 2014 and 2015, more than 11,000 people lost their lives.
