A Ugandan doctor suspected to be suffering from Ebola disease has arrived in Frankfurt from Sierra Leone for treatment in the city’s University Hospital, a German government official has said.
Health Minister of German state, Hesse, Stefan Gruettner, who disclosed this to journalists in Wiesbaden, Frankfurt on Friday, said that the patient was a physician.
He said that the Ugandan had worked for an Italian Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) and had also looked after patients in Sierra Leone.
Gruettner explained that the doctor was in Germany for treatment, saying that the hospital had capacity to help him.
According to him, the World Health Organisation (WHO) had asked Germany if it could help in taking care of the patient.
“It is a sign for those who help in the regions where the disease has broken out, especially badly, that they can get help if they contract the disease themselves,” he said.
Rene Gottschalk, Head of the Frankfurt Competence Center for Highly Contagious Life-Threatening Diseases, said that the Ugandan doctor was being treated in an isolation unit in the Frankfurt hospital.
Gottschalk said that the patient was conveyed from the airport to the hospital in a special vehicle.
Latest report from WHO indicates that no fewer than 3,338 people had died of the Ebola disease in Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Nigeria.
A case in the U.S. has heightened concerns that Ebola could spread globally and could raise further questions about travel restrictions from the affected countries.
