An American doctor who contracted Ebola while working in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has been transferred to Germany for treatment as health authorities race to contain a worsening outbreak that the World Health Organization warns could spread further across the region.
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| Drs. Rebekah and Peter Stafford with their children. Courtesy Serge |
The US physician, later identified as Peter Stafford, is being treated in a specialised isolation unit at Berlin’s Charité hospital after being evacuated from eastern Congo. German health authorities confirmed his arrival, while the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said additional Americans exposed to the virus were also being evacuated.
Stafford, a surgeon working with the Christian missionary organisation Serge, tested positive for Ebola after treating patients at Nyankunde Hospital in Bunia, where he has worked since 2023.
According to Serge, Stafford was unknowingly exposed while operating on a patient suffering severe abdominal pain before the outbreak had officially been identified.
Doctors initially suspected the patient had a gallbladder infection. However, after surgery, the patient died the following day and was buried before testing could confirm Ebola infection.
Dr Scott Myhre, Serge’s regional director, said Stafford had taken standard surgical precautions but was still exposed to the virus.
“He looked really tired and really sick,” Myhre told NBC News as Stafford departed for Germany. “There were people in full – we call it PPE – the personal protective equipment, and they’re completely covered, and he’s hanging on them barely strong enough to walk.”
Myhre described Stafford as “a very meticulous professional, and for every surgical case he does, he would be completely gowned in sterile garb and gloves and hats and glasses. But that’s not quite enough to prevent an Ebola exposure.”
Stafford’s wife, Rebekah Stafford, an obstetrician and gynaecologist, along with their four children, were also evacuated and are currently being monitored for symptoms while following quarantine protocols. Serge said the family is now in a secure location receiving specialised medical supervision.
The couple met while studying medicine at Ohio State University and moved to Africa in 2019, previously working in Togo before relocating to Congo.
The outbreak, centred in the DRC’s eastern Ituri province, has become one of the most serious Ebola emergencies in recent years. Health officials have reported more than 600 suspected infections and at least 139 suspected deaths linked to the Bundibugyo strain of the virus, which currently has no approved vaccine or treatment.
The WHO has declared the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern, warning that the epidemic could be “a much larger outbreak” than current figures indicate.
“We expect those numbers to keep increasing,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. “We know that the scale of the epidemic in DRC is much larger”.
Although officials stressed that the risk of a worldwide pandemic remains low, concerns are rising about regional spread after Uganda reported two confirmed cases and one suspected death connected to the outbreak.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the CDC and WHO were leading the international response but criticised the global health agency’s handling of the outbreak.
“The lead is obviously going to be Centers for Disease Control and the World Health Organization, which was a little late to identify this thing unfortunately,” Rubio said.
Tedros responded to the criticism during a briefing in Geneva, saying, “maybe what the secretary said ... could be from lack of understanding of how IHR [International Health Regulations] work, and the responsibilities of WHO and other entities.”
The United States has pledged $14 million in emergency assistance to help clinics in affected rural areas respond to the crisis. Rubio described the outbreak zone as “a kind of confined and hard-to-get-to place in a war-torn country.”
Meanwhile, the CDC has imposed temporary travel restrictions under Title 42, blocking entry into the US for foreign travellers who have recently visited outbreak-affected countries including the DRC, Uganda and South Sudan.
Despite the escalating outbreak, CDC officials emphasised that the risk to the American public remains low. Additional personnel are being deployed from Atlanta to support efforts on the ground.
Ebola is a severe viral disease that often begins with flu-like symptoms including fever, headache and fatigue before progressing to internal bleeding and organ failure in some cases. The virus is believed to originate in animals, particularly fruit bats, and can spread to humans through contact with infected bodily fluids or contaminated materials.
The current crisis has revived memories of the devastating 2014–2016 West African Ebola outbreak, which infected more than 28,000 people and killed over 11,000 across several countries, including cases reported in the United States and Europe.