After a good two weeks, the patient from the States is allowed to leave the hospital. The Charité doctors speak of a significant therapeutic success.
June 6, 2026, 2:49 p.mJune 6, 2026, 2:49 p.m
The Berlin Charité has fired the American doctor who was infected with the Ebola virus. The clinic says his health is good. Since May 30, tests have no longer detected any virus in his body. The responsible health authority then lifted the isolation order at 12 p.m. – as required by international standards.
The doctor was admitted to the Charité on May 20th. According to the university clinic, the rare Bundibugyo virus, a type of Ebola virus, was clearly detected using a PCR test. His wife and four children came to Berlin shortly afterwards. They were classified as “high-risk contacts” but had no symptoms and were in quarantine in a separate part of the ward.
“My gratitude cannot be adequately described”
The US patient himself thanked the Charité team: “I received first-class care, including experimental therapies that are currently being tested to treat this type of virus,” he was quoted as saying in a statement from the Charité.
«My gratitude cannot be adequately described in words. (…) Our thoughts are also with the people in Congo who do not have the opportunity to receive such care.”
The US doctor who was infected with Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo: He was treated at the Berlin Charité and has now been released.Image: DPA Charité
Ebola fever is a contagious and life-threatening disease. The virus is transmitted through physical contact and contact with body fluids. In the Democratic Republic of Congo in Central Africa, where the American worked, the latest Ebola outbreak is particularly difficult to contain. One of the reasons: There is currently neither a vaccine nor a special therapy for the Bundibugyo type.
Treatment in the special isolation ward
The Charité patient was flown from Uganda to Berlin in a special plane and then brought to the Charité under high security precautions. There he was treated in a special isolation ward on the Virchow Clinic campus.
This is a closed and protected unit separate from regular clinic operations, so that there can be no contact with other patients. According to the Federal Ministry of Health, there was no danger to the population or other patients.
The man was initially very weak and showed typical symptoms of an Ebola virus infection, according to the clinic. He also had a high viral load. As a result of combined antiviral therapy and other accompanying medical measures, the symptoms of the disease had already subsided significantly over the course of the first week. His condition has continuously improved and the laboratory values have normalized.
“We are very pleased with the successful course of treatment and consider this a significant therapeutic success,” said the director of the Charité’s Clinic for Infectious Diseases and Intensive Care Medicine, Leif Erik Sander. “The special isolation ward at the Charité has once again proven to be an indispensable component in dealing with highly pathogenic infections.”
Infectiologist Sander: He gives an update on the patient’s condition.Image: DPA
Outbreak in Africa not under control
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the Ebola outbreak in Congo and Uganda is still far from being under control.
According to the African health authority Africa CDC, there are now 381 confirmed cases in Congo, including 62 deaths. The WHO assumes that the number of unreported cases is high. So far, 16 cases and one death have been confirmed in neighboring Uganda.
According to the WHO, it remains difficult to isolate and monitor the contacts of infected people. So far, local health workers have only managed to trace 45 percent of all people who were in contact with those infected with Ebola. In order to stop the spread of the viral disease, it is necessary to identify 90 percent of all contact persons.
In 2014 and 2015, more than 11,000 people died in an Ebola epidemic in West Africa. Around 2,300 people died in the second worst recorded outbreak from 2018 to 2020 in eastern Congo.
Sources used:
- With material from the dpa news agency
- Own reporting
(hkl)