WASHINGTON/BERLIN – A US citizen who contracted Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where an outbreak of a rare strain of the virus has killed more than 130 people, is on the way to Germany for treatment, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Tuesday, May 19.

The patient has previously been identified by the Serge Christian mission organization as a medical missionary.

Germany said earlier on Tuesday it was preparing to treat the individual at the largest university hospital in Berlin.

The health ministry confirmed that a US citizen would be admitted to the special isolation ward at Berlin’s Charite University Hospital after US authorities requested assistance.

“Arrangements are currently being made to admit and treat the patient in Germany,” a spokesperson said, adding that the country has a network of experts for the management and care of patients with highly infectious diseases.

Six others considered “high-risk contacts” are finalizing travel plans to transit to Europe, Dr. Satish Pillai, incident manager for the US CDC’s Ebola response, told reporters on a call.

“The individuals are traveling to Europe, including Germany, and they will be in quarantine during their monitoring period,” Pillai said. One person will go to the Czech Republic, and the rest to Germany, he said.

The outbreak of the rare Bundibugyo strain in eastern DRC has killed 131 people and been declared a public health emergency by the World Health Organization.

Support for response clinics

The US State Department said on Tuesday it would fund up to 50 treatment clinics and associated costs in Ebola-affected regions of the DRC, Uganda and Congo. The funding would come mainly through the Central Emergency Response Fund administered by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the State Department said.

The department added that it would continue working closely with the CDC to mobilize global resources to respond to the outbreak. The clinics will enable implementing partners to provide emergency Ebola screening, triage and isolation capacity while setting up containment perimeters around affected areas.

The World Bank said it was also focused on mobilizing financing and technical support for countries responding to the outbreak.

Genetic testing has shown that currently available Ebola diagnostic tests are effective in detecting the strain, Pillai said.

The risk to the United States remains low, he said, and the CDC is working with state, local, tribal and territorial health departments on immediate patient isolation, specimen collection and testing in suspected cases.

Pillai pointed to other measures taken by the CDC, including entry restrictions announced on Monday for travelers who have departed from, or were present in, the DRC, Uganda and South Sudan during the past 21 days.

Africa CDC criticizes travel curbs

The Africa CDC criticized the decision on Tuesday, saying travel restrictions are not a solution and could potentially increase the risk rather than reduce it.

“The fastest path to protecting all countries in the world is to aggressively support outbreak control at the source,” Africa CDC Director General Dr. Jean Kaseya said. “Global health security cannot be achieved through borders alone.”

Public health experts say cuts to the US CDC under President Donald Trump’s administration and the official US withdrawal from the World Health Organization this year will hamper response efforts and international support.

The US CDC has a country office with 30 staff members in the DRC, Pillai said, and another with 100 staff in neighboring Uganda, where at least two confirmed cases have been recorded.

One CDC expert will be sent to the region on Wednesday, May 20, he said, and the agency is providing remote and on-the-ground assistance including disease tracking, contact tracing, rapid laboratory sample collection and viral sequencing.

He did not directly address a question about the DRC team and the upcoming World Cup but said the CDC was working with FIFA to ensure travelers and the American public remain safe throughout. – Rappler.com