Anxious healthcare workers in eastern Congo said Wednesday they are underprotected and undertrained in a rapidly spreading Ebola outbreak of a rare type of the virus in one of the world's most remote and vulnerable places.

Dr Peter Stafford’s wife and four children are also being monitored for symptoms amid Ebola outbreak in Congo

An American doctor who contracted Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has been flown to Germany for treatment, along with his wife and four children, as the World Health Organization warned of the “scale and speed” of the outbreak.

Authorities have reported at least 134 suspected deaths and more than 500 cases of the hemorrhagic Bundibugyo virus, which has no approved treatments or vaccines. The outbreak, which has spread into urban areas, has been declared a public health emergency requiring international response.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Daniel Irungu/EPA

© Photograph: Daniel Irungu/EPA

© Photograph: Daniel Irungu/EPA

[Nile Post] Access to Mubende Regional Referral Hospital has been restricted following the registration of three suspected Ebola cases, with results from the Ministry of Health still pending.

[UN News] The deadly Ebola outbreak in Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda does not represent a global pandemic emergency, although the risk is high at a national and regional level, the UN health agency chief said on Wednesday.

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

 

[Premium Times] The authority says additional health surveillance and screening measures have been activated across international airports following renewed Ebola concerns in parts of Central Africa.

[Nile Post] The Ministry of Health Uganda has issued new Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) aimed at preventing the spread of Ebola Virus Disease during public gatherings, religious services, transport operations and burial ceremonies.

[Capital FM] Nairobi -- Kenya has ruled out imposing blanket quarantines on travellers and truck drivers as part of its Ebola preparedness measures, opting instead for enhanced risk-based screening and surveillance systems amid the ongoing outbreak in Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.