News24 | Germany to treat American infected with Ebola virus with ‘nationwide network of experts’

Health workers prepare doses of a trial vaccine at Mulago Referral Hospital for medical staff and contacts of a man who died after testing positive for the Sudan strain of the Ebola virus in Kampala, Uganda.

• Germany will treat an American infected with Ebola.
• The toll from the Ebola outbreak in the DRC has risen to an estimated 131 deaths from 513 suspected cases.
• No vaccine or treatment exists for the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola.

Germany is preparing to admit and treat a US citizen who contracted Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the German health ministry told AFP on Tuesday.

“US authorities have requested assistance from the German government in treating a US citizen who contracted Ebola in Congo,” a ministry spokesperson said.

“Preparations are currently under way to admit and treat the patient in Germany,” the spokesperson added, without saying where and when the patient would be treated.

“In Germany, there is a nationwide network of experts for the management and care of patients with diseases caused by highly pathogenic agents.”

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Monday that the American had contracted the virus following exposure related “to their work” in DRC and had tested positive late on Sunday.

READ | US CDC says one American tested positive for Ebola

The toll from the Ebola outbreak in DRC, which the World Health Organisation has declared an international health emergency, has risen to an estimated 131 deaths from 513 suspected cases, Congolese health minister Samuel Roger Kamba said.

The outbreak’s epicentre is in the northeastern Ituri province on the border with Uganda and South Sudan, whose status as a gold-mining hub leads to people regularly crisscrossing the region.

No vaccine or treatment exists for the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola behind the latest outbreak of the disease, which has killed more than 15 000 people in Africa in the past half century.

The WHO said on Tuesday it was examining whether any candidate vaccines or treatments could be used to rein in the deadly Ebola outbreak in the DRC.

“At the international level, (we are) looking at what candidate vaccines or treatment are available and if any could be of use in this outbreak,” Anne Ancia, WHO’s DRC representative, told reporters in Geneva, speaking from Bunia in DRC’s Ituri region.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Tuesday he was “deeply concerned” by the outbreak of the highly contagious haemorrhagic fever.

“I did not do this lightly... I’m deeply concerned about the scale and speed of the epidemic,” he told the World Health Assembly in Geneva.

He added that he would convene the agency’s emergency committee later on Tuesday “to advise us on temporary recommendations”.

The Ituri outbreak is the 17th outbreak of Ebola to hit the DRC and officials have warned of a high risk of spread.

But with the outbreak largely concentrated in difficult-to-access areas, few samples have been laboratory-tested.

There were a number of reasons to worry, Ghebreyesus said.

He pointed out that cases had been reported in urban areas, including Kampala, as well as the large Congolese city of Goma, currently held by the Rwanda-backed M23 militia.

“The province of Ituri is highly insecure,” he said, pointing out that intensifying conflict in recent months had seen more than 100 000 people newly displaced in the region.

He also said that deaths had been reported among health workers, suggesting “healthcare-associated transmission”.

Vaccines are only available for the Zaire strain, which was identified in 1976 and has a higher fatality rate of 60% to 90%.

Tedros stressed that “in the absence of a vaccine, there are many other measures countries ... can take to stop the spread of this virus and save lives”, among them “risk communication and community engagement”.

He said that WHO had a team on the ground supporting national authorities to respond.