US doctor recovers from Ebola in Germany as DRC cases surge to 488

A doctor from the United States who fell ill with Ebola while working in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has recovered after more than two weeks of treatment in Germany, according to the hospital that admitted him.

The Charite public hospital in Berlin said the man – identified in media reports as 39-year-old Peter Stafford – was in “good health” and cleared to leave quarantine on Saturday.

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Stafford, who worked as a surgeon for a Christian missionary group in the DRC, was admitted on May 20 after a test established he had the rare Bundibugyo virus, the strain of Ebola identified in the outbreak in east and central Africa. He is believed to have caught the virus while operating on a patient with Ebola in eastern DRC, before the outbreak there was officially declared on May 15.

Stafford was flown from Uganda to Berlin in a special aircraft and taken to the Charite hospital under strict safety precautions.

His wife and four children, who had no symptoms but were initially classified as “high-risk contacts”, arrived in Berlin shortly afterwards and put in quarantine in a separate part of the ward. Their isolation restrictions were also lifted on Saturday.

While three vaccines are being researched and set to be fast-tracked for trials, there is no approved vaccine for the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola yet.

Stafford said he received care that included “experimental therapies currently being trialled for this type of virus,” according to a hospital statement.

He thanked the hospital and staff saying “words cannot adequately express my gratitude” but added that “our thoughts remain with the people in the Congo who do not have access to such care.”

Leif Erik Sander, director of the hospital’s Department of Infectious Diseases and Intensive Care Medicine, described the patient’s recovery as a “significant therapeutic success”.

The World Health Organization (WHO) says the new Ebola outbreak – which began in eastern DRC and has spread to neighbouring Uganda – is far from under control.

On Saturday, the DRC announced that its total number of Ebola cases had increased to 488 from 452 cases reported days earlier, including 86 deaths.

Uganda has confirmed 19 cases and two deaths.

Uganda has largely closed off its western border with the DRC in an effort to curb cross-border contagion, frustrating traders who rely on border crossings for business.

The WHO has declared an international public health emergency for the outbreak, which the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warned could swell to become the largest Ebola epidemic on record, rivalling the 2014-2016 epidemic in West Africa.