In Germany, patients are sent to a special isolation ward.Image: www.imago-images.de
July 13, 2026, 04:10Jul 13, 2026, 4:16 am
Almost two months after the first arrival of a US citizen suffering from Ebola, a second US citizen infected with the virus was flown to Germany for treatment. The person landed at Frankfurt Airport that night and was then driven to the university clinic in the Hessian city, a spokesman for the Federal Ministry of Health confirmed to the German news agency DPA.
The US health authority CDC had previously announced that a US citizen working for a humanitarian organization in the Democratic Republic of Congo was affected. The person tested positive for the Bundibugyo variant of the virus that is currently rampant there. It initially remained unclear whether it was a man or a woman.
No vaccination, no standard therapy
Ebola fever is a contagious and life-threatening disease. The virus can be transmitted through direct physical contact and contact with body fluids. The latest Ebola outbreak is particularly difficult to contain in the Congo in Central Africa, where the two infected US doctors worked. One of the reasons: There is currently neither a vaccine nor a special therapy for the Bundibugyo type.
Special aircraft are usually used to transport Ebola patients. In Germany, patients are placed in special isolation wards. This is a closed, protected unit that is separate from regular clinic operations so that contact with other patients can be excluded. According to the Federal Ministry of Health, there is no danger to the population or other patients.
First US doctor survived, but only barely
The American doctor, who came to Germany on May 20th, was admitted to the Berlin Charité. According to medical information, his condition was life-threatening at times, especially between departure and arrival in Germany. After a good two weeks of treatment, he was finally released from the hospital.
His wife and four children also came to the Charité as “high-risk contacts”, but had no symptoms and were in quarantine in a separate part of the ward. In children, Ebola can cause death “very quickly,” said Charité doctor Leif Erik Sander, director of the Clinic for Infectious Diseases and Intensive Care Medicine, at the time.
At the end of June, the Bundibugyo virus was detected in Europe for the first time. In France, a doctor from a humanitarian organization who returned from eastern Congo tested positive. According to the French Ministry of Health, the man was isolated immediately after his arrival. At the beginning of July he was discharged from the hospital after negative tests and without symptoms.
The situation in the Congo is dramatic
There are now around 650 confirmed deaths in Congo, and at least 1,830 people were or are infected. According to health experts, no previous Ebola outbreak has seen case numbers rise as quickly as the current epidemic.
In 2014 and 2015, more than 11,000 people died in the worst Ebola epidemic to date in West Africa. Even then, three Ebola patients were brought to Germany for treatment: a doctor from Uganda was treated in Frankfurt, a man from Senegal in Hamburg; A UN employee who was treated in Leipzig did not survive the illness. (sda/dpa)