Second American Contracts Ebola in Democratic Republic of Congo Outbreak

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Friday that an American citizen contracted Ebola while performing humanitarian work in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The patient is the second U.S.

Citizen to become infected during the current outbreak. The CDC did not identify the patient but said it is coordinating with the employer, U.S. health officials, and DRC health officials to ensure proper care and prevent further transmission.

The U.S. State Department stated on Saturday that it was aware of the incident and involved in supporting the patient. A spokesman for Samaritan’s Purse told the New York Times on Sunday that the patient is an employee of the group.

The patient has received treatment since last Monday at one of the organization’s centers in Ituri province and had worked on logistics from Bunia for the past month without direct involvement in treating Ebola victims. Samaritan’s Purse operates a 50-bed treatment center in Bunia that is expanding to 70 beds and a 31-bed center in Nyankunde.

The group has more than 70 personnel on the ground in eastern DRC.

The first U.S. citizen to contract Ebola in the outbreak was doctor Peter Stafford, who became infected in May during medical missionary work and was evacuated to Charite University Hospital in Berlin. Stafford’s wife Rebekah and their four children were kept in isolation as high-risk contacts until discharged in June and returned to the United States.

The Staffords had been based in Nyankunde. DRC health officials stated on Monday that the outbreak has reached 1,926 confirmed cases and 702 fatalities. Ebola has spread to Haut-Uele and Tshopo provinces, with one confirmed infection and one death reported in Haut-Uele and four infections and two deaths in Tshopo.

Cases in those provinces are primarily imported from Niania in Ituri province, which accounts for roughly 90 percent of all reported cases. World Health Organization Emergencies Director Chikwe Ihekweazu stated on Friday that 80 percent of new Ebola patients in Ituri have no known epidemiological link to existing cases and that the true number of infections could be up to four times larger than official estimates.