By Ahmed Aboulenein and Friederike Heine
WASHINGTON/BERLIN, May 19 (Reuters) - A U.S. citizen who contracted Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where an outbreak of a rare strain of the virus has killed over 130 people, is currently on his way to Germany for treatment, the U.S. CDC said on Tuesday.
The patient has been previously identified by the Serge Christian mission organization as medical missionary Peter Stafford.
Germany earlier on Tuesday said it was preparing to treat the individual
in the largest university hospital in Berlin.
The health ministry confirmed a U.S. citizen would be admitted to the special isolation ward at Berlin's Charite University Hospital after U.S. authorities requested assistance.
"Arrangements are currently being made to admit and treat the patient in Germany," a spokesperson said, adding that there was a network of experts in the country for the management and care of patients with highly infectious diseases.
Six others who are considered "high-risk contacts" are finalizing travel plans to transit to Europe, Dr. Satish Pillai, the incident manager for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Ebola response, told reporters on a call.
"The individuals are traveling to Europe, including in Germany, and they will be in quarantine during their monitoring period," Pillai said. One person will be going to the Czech Republic, and the rest to Germany, he said.
The outbreak of the rare Bundibugyo strain of the virus in eastern DRC has killed 131 people and been declared a public health emergency by the World Health Organization.
Genetic testing has shown that diagnostic tests currently available for Ebola are effective in detecting the strain, Pillai said.
The risk to the United States remains low, he said, and the CDC is working with state, local, tribal, and territorial health departments on immediate patient isolation, specimen collection, and testing in suspected cases.
Pillai pointed to other measures the CDC has taken, including entry restrictions the U.S. agency announced on Monday for travelers who have departed from, or were present in, the DRC, Uganda and South Sudan during the past 21 days.
AFRICA CDC CRITICIZES TRAVEL CURBS
The Africa CDC criticized the decision on Tuesday, saying in a statement that travel restrictions are not a solution and could potentially increase the risk rather than reducing it.
"The fastest path to protecting all countries in the world is to aggressively support outbreak control at the source," said Africa CDC Director General Dr. Jean Kaseya. "Global health security cannot be achieved through borders alone."
Public health experts say cuts to the U.S. CDC under President Donald Trump's administration and the official withdrawal of the United States from the World Health Organization this year will hamper U.S. response efforts and support.
The U.S. CDC has a country office with 30 staff members in the DRC, Pillai said, and another with 100 staff in neighboring Uganda, where there have been at least two confirmed cases.
One CDC expert will be sent to the region tomorrow, he said, and the agency is providing remote and on the ground assistance in several ways including disease tracking, contact tracing, rapid laboratory sample collection and viral sequencing.
He did not directly address a question on the DRC team and the upcoming World Cup but said the CDC was working with FIFA to ensure that travelers and the American public remain safe throughout.
(Reporting by Ahmed Aboulenein in Washington, Michael Erman in New York, Julie Steenhuysen in Chicago, Friederike Heine and Ludwig Burger in Berlin, Ryan Patrick Jones in Toronto; Editing by Timothy Heritage, Andrew Cawthorne and Deepa Babington)
