By Ahmed Aboulenein and Michael Erman
WASHINGTON, May 20 (Reuters) – A U.S. citizen who contracted Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where an outbreak of a rare strain of the virus has killed over 130 people, is being treated in Germany and is in stable condition, the U.S. CDC said on Wednesday.
Six other high-risk U.S. citizens were currently being moved from the DRC to Germany and the Czech Republic, Dr. Satish Pillai, the incident manager for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Ebola response, said in a briefing.
The patient had been previously identified by the Serge Christian mission organization as medical missionary Dr. Peter Stafford. Serge said Stafford contracted Ebola while treating patients in the DRC.
The Washington Post, citing five people familiar with the U.S. Ebola response, reported on Wednesday that the White House resisted allowing Stafford to return to the United States, delaying his evacuation and care.
The wife and children of another missionary with the same group were allowed to return to the United States after CDC medical experts assessed the family twice, the Post reported.
The White House denied the Washington Post report when asked for comment. The patient was flown to Germany because it is 12 hours closer to the DRC than the United States, said White House spokesperson Kush Desai.
“Given that this American was in a very unstable part of the DRC, which as a whole is an unstable country, the administration continues to take the most effective actions to maximize this American’s odds of survival and minimize the odds of further transmission,” said Desai.
Pillai on Wednesday did not address repeated questions on whether the U.S. was barring citizens who were infected with or exposed to Ebola from entering the country.
The CDC announced entry restrictions on Monday for travelers who departed from, or were present in, the DRC, Uganda and South Sudan during the past 21 days, but said the 30-day order would not apply to U.S. citizens, nationals, and lawful permanent residents.
Ebola patients were treated in the United States during previous outbreaks, such as the 2014–2016 West Africa outbreak, when the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha and Emory University Hospital in Atlanta treated several patients and monitored others who were exposed.
Pillai has said that Stafford and the six people who were exposed had been evacuated to Europe because it was closer, allowing them to get the necessary care as soon as possible.
UNMC and Emory are currently serving as quarantine sites for 18 people who were aboard the luxury cruise ship where an outbreak of the Andes hantavirus was first reported and killed three people.
CDC RESPONSE EFFORTS
The outbreak of the rare Bundibugyo strain of Ebola in eastern DRC has killed 131 people and been declared a public health emergency by the World Health Organization.
Public health experts say cuts to the CDC under President Donald Trump’s administration and the official withdrawal of the U.S. from the World Health Organization this year will hamper U.S. response efforts and support.
The U.S. CDC is deploying staff to the DRC, Pillai said, without specifying how many. The agency is also deploying a “handful” to neighboring Uganda, where two cases have been confirmed, he said.
They are not being deployed into the outbreak area because it is too unstable, he said, but will offer support to the CDC country offices already on the ground. The CDC has around 30 people in its DRC office and 100 in Uganda.
Pillai said there are no approved medical countermeasures for this strain of Ebola at present, but there were active discussions to send some monoclonal antibody products to some of the affected countries.
(Reporting by Ahmed Aboulenein in Washington and Michael Erman in New York; Additional reporting by Christian Martinez; Editing by Chris Reese and Deepa Babington)
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