A staff in a protective gown prepares to inspect visitors as a preventive measure against Ebola at the National Institute of Biomedical Research in Goma, North Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo, on Tuesday, the same day U.S. health officials said an American infected with the virus was being sent to Germany for treatment. File Photo by MARIE JEANNE MUNYERENKANA/EPA
May 20 (UPI) -- An American missionary physician working in the Democratic Republic of Congo has contracted Ebola and is being transferred to Germany, U.S. health officials said, as the outbreak in central Africa worsens.
Dr. Satish Pillai, incident manager for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Ebola response, told reporters in a Tuesday press conference that an American exposed to the virus while working in the DRC has tested positive for the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, which is responsible for the ongoing outbreak.
Pillai did not identify the American patient by name, but the Christian missionary agency Serge has said it is Dr. Peter Stafford, a medical missionary who was treating patients in eastern DRC's Ituri Province, where the Ebola outbreak is centered.
The patient was being transferred to Germany for care, Pillai said, while thanking his German, Ugandan and DRC colleagues for their "vital partnerships in facilitating these transfers."
