American doctor with Ebola evacuated to Germany as wife and four children are monitored in Congo
When the American surgeon who contracted the Ebola virus in the Democratic Republic of Congo was flown to Germany for treatment Tuesday, he was barely able to stand, according to two leaders of the Christian mission group where he worked.
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Dr Scott Myhre, the group’s regional director for East and Central Africa, called Serge, described the scene as Dr Peter Stafford left.
“There were people wearing their entire – we call it PPE – personal protective equipment, and they were completely covered, and he was barely holding on tight enough to walk,” Myhre said. “He looked really tired and really sick.”
Stafford worked at Nyankunde hospital, located in the Congolese province of Ituri, where the Ebola epidemic is concentrated. Days before the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed the outbreak, Stafford operated on a 33-year-old patient with severe abdominal pain, Myhre said. At the time, doctors believed the patient was suffering from a gallbladder infection.
“[Stafford] did an abdominal procedure and found the gallbladder was normal, and closed it, but that patient died the next day,” Myhre said.
A few days later, they realized that the patient, who had been buried before he could be tested, had probably died of Ebola. Stafford developed symptoms over the weekend and tested positive for Ebola on Sunday, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“He is a very meticulous professional, and for every surgical case he performs, he would be fully clothed in sterile clothing, gloves, hats and goggles,” Myhre said of Stafford. “But this is not enough to prevent exposure to the Ebola virus.”
Stafford’s wife, Rebekah Stafford, is also a doctor and treated the same patient. She and the couple’s four young children remain for now in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where they are being monitored, according to Myhre. Another doctor, Dr. Patrick LaRochelle, is believed to have been exposed through a second patient and is also being monitored. None showed signs of illness.
“We don’t see a lot of pediatric Ebola cases, and we certainly hope that’s not the case here,” Myhre said.
Stafford quarantined himself as soon as he developed symptoms, Myhre added, which included chills, fever, muscle aches, fatigue and nausea.
For the flight to Germany, Myhre said, Stafford was placed in a tube-shaped plastic bed, “the size of a coffin,” to protect the plane’s crew from infection.
The incubation period for the virus can be up to 21 days, according to the World Health Organization, whose leaders have expressed serious concerns about the “scale and speed of the outbreak.”
The virus likely spread for weeks before the outbreak was identified. The death toll rose rapidly: at least 131 people were reported dead in Central Africa and 531 were infected.
The type of Ebola fueling this outbreak is a less common form known as Bundibugyo, for which there is no approved vaccine or treatment. During previous outbreaks in Bundibugyo, the mortality rate varied between 30% and 50%, according to the WHO.
