American Ebola patient transferred to Germany for treatment

An American Ebola patient has arrived in Germany for treatment, Berlin's health ministry said. The ministry said the patient landed in Frankfurt overnight and was transferred to the city's university hospital.

World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on X that the man was a humanitarian worker who had been in Bunia, the capital of Ituri province in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Ituri is the centre of the current Ebola outbreak. Tedros said the WHO had given the man clinical care and close monitoring before he was safely transferred to Germany for continued follow-up care.

The DRC declared its 17th Ebola outbreak in mid-May. The outbreak is caused by the Bundibugyo strain of the virus, for which the source says there is no vaccine or cure. The WHO has reported more than 1,900 confirmed cases and more than 700 confirmed deaths in the current outbreak.

The German ministry said the US patient posed no danger to the general population or to other patients at the Frankfurt hospital. It said the risk of an Ebola-infected person entering Germany was very low.

The ministry said US authorities asked Germany for help because of the country's experience in treating Ebola cases and because the flight from the DRC to Germany is shorter. Another US patient with Ebola was quarantined with his family at Berlin's Charite Hospital at the end of May and recovered after two weeks of treatment.