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Evacuation to Frankfurt
A second American infected with Ebola while working in the Democratic Republic of Congo was transferred to Germany for care and arrived in Frankfurt overnight, according to the health ministry in Berlin and the patient’s employer’s account.
“The patient landed in Frankfurt overnight and was transferred to the city’s university hospital”
The patient was admitted to the city’s university hospital for treatment, with the ministry saying the risk to the public or other patients was “very low” and that the U.S. had requested Germany’s help because of expertise and shorter flight time.
The World Health Organization said the man was a “humanitarian worker” who had been in Bunia, the capital of the northeastern Ituri province, where the WHO said the outbreak’s epicentre is located.
The DRC declared its 17th Ebola pandemic in mid-May, and the outbreak is caused by the Bundibugyo strain for which there is no vaccine or cure, while the WHO said it had provided “clinical care and close monitoring” for the patient in Ituri.
In parallel, the CBC reported that the patient arrived at Frankfurt University Hospital’s special isolation unit at around 3 a.m. local time after contracting the Bundibugyo variant in Congo, and said Timo Wolf described the patient’s condition as “currently stable.”
WHO and Samaritan’s Purse
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on X that the organization “has provided clinical care and close monitoring” for the patient in the Ituri province, and ABC News reported that the CDC said the unnamed patient works for a humanitarian aid organization and tested positive for the Bundibugyo virus.
Samaritan’s Purse confirmed the infection, with Franklin Graham saying in a statement, “We can confirm that one of our Samaritan's Purse staff members working in Bunia, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), has tested positive for the Ebola virus.”
ABC News added that Samaritan’s Purse said it immediately contacted the CDC, the State Department and the DRC’s government and that it had begun contact tracing after learning of the positive test.
The Hill reported that Timo Wolf, head of the special isolation unit at the hospital in Frankfurt, told Reuters the patient is “currently stable,” and said the patient received early treatment with Wolf adding, “I am hopeful he’s going to have a good outcome.”
The Hill also quoted Tedros on X that “protecting frontline responders must remain a top priority,” and said Samaritan’s Purse praised God that the staff member “is in stable condition, and is receiving excellent medical care in the hospital’s special isolation unit.”
Trials and outbreak pressure
While Germany treated the newly arrived patient in Frankfurt, the Jerusalem Post reported that the University of Oxford “has launched the first human trial of a vaccine against Bundibugyo ebolavirus,” known as BD-Ebov, evaluating the ChAdOx1 BDBV vaccine in 50 healthy adults aged 18 to 55 in Oxford.
“has launched the first human trial of a vaccine against Bundibugyo ebolavirus”
The Jerusalem Post said Serum Institute of India manufactured and stockpiled about 620,000 doses of the vaccine candidate within two weeks and supplied 4,000 investigational doses for the early-stage study, and it said WHO recommended prioritizing the ChAdOx1 BDBV vaccine alongside a single-dose candidate known as rVSV Bundibugyo for clinical evaluation.
In the background of these research efforts, Channels Television said the DRC outbreak had produced over 1,900 confirmed cases and more than 700 confirmed deaths, and it said the ministry considered the U.S. patient to represent “no danger for the general population or for other patients” in the Frankfurt hospital.
The CBC reported that confirmed Ebola cases in Congo rose to 1,926, including 702 deaths, and said the outbreak spread to two new provinces, Haut-Uele and Tshopo, according to the country’s public health institute.
With the outbreak continuing and the Bundibugyo strain lacking a vaccine or cure, the Washington Post described the second American’s transfer to Germany for care and said he was responding positively to treatment, while the WHO’s Tedros wrote that the organization was “deeply grateful for the courage and commitment of all health workers working to end this outbreak.”