American doctor infected with Ebola released after treatment
Published in Health & Fitness
A U.S. citizen who contracted Ebola while working as a doctor in East Africa has been discharged from a hospital in Germany after receiving treatment and testing negative for the virus.
Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin admitted Peter Stafford, who had pronounced symptoms of the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, on May 20 amid a surge of the deadly and rare hemorrhagic fever in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda that has infected hundreds and killed at least 80 people, according to the Congo National Institute of Public Health updates.
Stafford’s five family members were also quarantined at the hospital, but none of them developed symptoms or tested positive for Ebola. Public health officials lifted their isolation order on Saturday alongside Stafford’s.
Stafford contracted the virus in Congo while working on a humanitarian mission with missionary group Serge, and he was then sent to Germany for treatment along with his wife and four young children. Another missionary who was exposed was sent to the Czech Republic to be monitored.
Researchers at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned on Friday that the current Ebola outbreak could become one of the largest epidemics of the disease ever recorded if control measures fail to accelerate.
Public health workers have struggled to control the outbreak in the war-scarred region where years of conflict have displaced more than 5 million people. Travel restrictions between Congo, Uganda and other nations have made it more difficult to quickly transport doctors and aid. Cuts to U.S. public health and foreign aid resources have hampered the response, as well.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said that while the U.S. wants to send resources to the outbreak, the nation’s “number one” priority is to keep Ebola out. The U.S. has said it will open a quarantine facility in Kenya to monitor exposed Americans and send any infected person to Europe for treatment. The move has been paused by a court in Kenya, however.
The U.S. has added travel restrictions for people coming from Congo, Uganda and South Sudan — including people with green cards — and set up testing centers at four U.S. airports.
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