Berlin hospital discharges U.S. Ebola patient after Congo infection

The Charité hospital in Berlin discharged a U.S. citizen treated for Ebola after his virus tests stayed negative since May 30, closing a tightly managed transfer that began when he was admitted on May 20 with Bundibugyo Ebola virus infection. The patient was later identified as missionary Peter Stafford, and his infection was traced to work treating patients in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Symptoms that were severe on arrival “subsided significantly” during the first week, the hospital said, after combined antiviral therapy and additional supportive care. Charité said the patient’s viral load fell sharply, laboratory values normalized and the public health department lifted the isolation order after he had been free of symptoms for more than 72 hours and had repeated negative PCR tests. Charité official Leif Erik Sander called the result a “significant therapeutic success.”

The same containment rules covered his family. Five relatives, classified as high-risk contacts, were quarantined at Charité and never developed symptoms, and routine tests also failed to detect the Bundibugyo virus. Their quarantine ended 21 days after the last high-risk contact, and the family left medical care in good health after a final examination.

For public-health officials, the case offered a rare operational success in a wider outbreak that still stretched across Central Africa. The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control said on June 5 that the Bundibugyo outbreak continued in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda, with 381 confirmed cases and 64 confirmed deaths in Congo and 19 confirmed cases and two deaths in Uganda. The Berlin discharge showed how specialized isolation wards, quarantine of close contacts and repeated negative testing can work together when a dangerous infection crosses borders.