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Berlin, Germany: Germany is preparing to admit and treat a US citizen who contracted Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the German health ministry told AFP on Tuesday.
"US authorities have requested assistance from the German government in treating a US citizen who contracted Ebola in Congo," a ministry spokesperson said.
"Preparations are currently underway to admit and treat the patient in Germany," the spokesperson added, without saying where and when the patient would be treated.
"In Germany, there is a nationwide network of experts for the management and care of patients with diseases caused by highly pathogenic agents."
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Monday that the American had contracted the virus following exposure related "to their work" in DRC and had tested positive late Sunday.
The toll from the Ebola outbreak in DRC, which the World Health Organization has declared an international health emergency, has risen to an estimated 131 deaths from 513 suspected cases, Congolese health minister Samuel Roger Kamba said.
The outbreak's epicentre is in the northeastern Ituri province on the border with Uganda and South Sudan, whose status as a gold-mining hub leads to people regularly crisscrossing the region.
No vaccine or treatment exists for the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola behind the latest outbreak of the disease, which has killed more than 15,000 people in Africa in the past half century.
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Tuesday he was "deeply concerned" by the outbreak of the highly contagious hemorrhagic fever.
