An American doctor who contracted Ebola in Africa is not critically ill, the hospital in Germany that is caring for him said on May 22.
“Because the course of the illness can change, he remains under close observation and is receiving treatment,” Charite University Hospital in Berlin said in a statement. “He is being cared for in the high-security area of the specialized isolation unit.”
The patient has been identified as Dr. Peter Stafford, a surgeon with the Christian organization Serge.
Stafford’s four young children and his wife, another doctor, were also transported to the Charite hospital from Congo after they were exposed to Ebola.
Those five “are currently asymptomatic and quarantined in a separate part of the unit,” the hospital said on Friday, adding that initial testing for Ebola returned negative.
Congo is in the midst of a growing Ebola outbreak caused by a virus that has no authorized vaccines or treatments. The mortality rate for Ebola caused by the Bundibugyo virus is 25 to 50 percent, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Stafford said Thursday in a statement released by Serge, “Before I was evacuated I was feeling really concerned I wasn’t going to make it. And now I’m cautiously optimistic.”
Dr. Scott Myhre, a director with Serge, said Thursday that Stafford was critically ill but not acutely deteriorating.
“Peter is continuing to show the predictable sequence of Ebola signs and symptoms,” Myhre said. “He passed through the first days of nonspecific symptoms (fever, aches, fatigue), and has now passed into a phase with vomiting, diarrhea, and rash, with labs trending slightly in the right direction.”
Stafford received unspecified intravenous treatments and is being taken care of by German personnel who don full-body hazmat suits.
His wife and children were able to see him through a window.
Dr. Patrick LaRochelle, another doctor with Serge who was exposed to Ebola in Congo, was transported to the Czech Republic for monitoring.
When asked why the people were taken to Europe rather than the United States, CDC Ebola response manager Dr. Satish Pillai told reporters this week that “the assessments for movement plans to Germany [and] the Czech Republic were based on the very dynamic situation and the need to move quickly.”
Pillai declined to say who made the decision not to take the Americans to the United States.
“The Trump administration’s top and only concern is ensuring the health and safety of American citizens,” Kush Desai, a White House spokesman, told The Epoch Times in an email.
He said that the hospital in Germany was chosen because it is closer to Congo and because its capabilities are on par with facilities in the United States.
A White House official told The Epoch Times that decisions on any additional American Ebola patients would be made on a case-by-case basis, “but we will do what we need to ensure health of Americans and minimize transmission odds.”
Reuters contributed to this report.