German hospital says US Ebola patient is stable, family quarantined in Berlin

A US citizen infected with Ebola is being treated in a hospital in Berlin, while the patient’s wife and four children have been quarantined as high-risk contacts, German authorities said Friday.

Berlin’s Charite hospital said the patient shows clear symptoms and is severely weakened, but is not currently critically ill and does not require intensive care measures or organ support at this time.

“Because the course of the illness can change, he remains under close observation and is receiving treatment. He is being cared for in the high-security area of the specialized isolation unit,” the hospital said in a press release.

Doctors said the patient’s wife and children—considered high-risk contacts—are not showing symptoms and are being quarantined in a separate area of the isolation unit. Their first PCR test showed no evidence of Ebola infection.

According to local media reports, the infected US citizen is a doctor who contracted the virus in the Democratic Republic of Congo after unknowingly operating on a patient with Ebola before the infections were detected.

The outbreak was officially announced on May 15 in Ituri province in eastern Congo. Since then, Congolese health officials and the World Health Organization (WHO) have logged roughly 600 suspected infections and 139 deaths.

The outbreak has since expanded to North Kivu and now South Kivu. Two imported cases involving Congolese citizens, one of whom died, were reported in neighboring Uganda.