United Nations Medical Official Dies of Ebola in German Hospital
The 56-year-old UN employee, who caught Ebola while working in Liberia, has died at a clinic in Leipzig
Philip Oltermann in Berlin
The Guardian, Tuesday 14 October 2014 06.22 EDT
A UN employee infected with Ebola has died in Germany, officials say.
The 56-year-old Sudanese man had been flown from Liberia to Leipzig last Thursday, where he received treatment at a specialist unit at the St Georg clinic.
On his arrival, doctors at the hospital described his condition as “highly critical, but stable”. On Tuesday morning the clinic confirmed in a statement that the patient had died on Monday night, “in spite of intensive medical measures and the best efforts on behalf of the medical staff”.
The Leipzig clinic has assured the public that there is no risk of infection for people in the area. The man had arrived in Germany on a specially adapted Gulfstream jet with an isolation chamber, and had been treated on an isolation unit by staff wearing protective gear.
According to the World Health Organisation, around 8,400 people have been infected with Ebola after the current outbreak of the disease in Africa, of whom more than 4,000 have died. The epidemic is still out of control in the west African states of Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone.
The Sudanese man was the third Ebola victim to receive treatment in Germany. A doctor from Uganda is being treated in an isolation unit in Frankfurt, while a Senegalese man was recently released from a Hamburg clinic after five weeks of treatment.
The German government claims to be well prepared for an outbreak of Ebola. Isolation units at hospitals in Frankfurt, Berlin, Düsseldorf, Leipzig, Munich, Stuttgart and Hamburg could hold a total of 50 Ebola patients, it said. There are currently no plans to increase the number of units.
The 56-year-old UN employee, who caught Ebola while working in Liberia, has died at a clinic in Leipzig
Philip Oltermann in Berlin
The Guardian, Tuesday 14 October 2014 06.22 EDT
A UN employee infected with Ebola has died in Germany, officials say.
The 56-year-old Sudanese man had been flown from Liberia to Leipzig last Thursday, where he received treatment at a specialist unit at the St Georg clinic.
On his arrival, doctors at the hospital described his condition as “highly critical, but stable”. On Tuesday morning the clinic confirmed in a statement that the patient had died on Monday night, “in spite of intensive medical measures and the best efforts on behalf of the medical staff”.
The Leipzig clinic has assured the public that there is no risk of infection for people in the area. The man had arrived in Germany on a specially adapted Gulfstream jet with an isolation chamber, and had been treated on an isolation unit by staff wearing protective gear.
According to the World Health Organisation, around 8,400 people have been infected with Ebola after the current outbreak of the disease in Africa, of whom more than 4,000 have died. The epidemic is still out of control in the west African states of Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone.
The Sudanese man was the third Ebola victim to receive treatment in Germany. A doctor from Uganda is being treated in an isolation unit in Frankfurt, while a Senegalese man was recently released from a Hamburg clinic after five weeks of treatment.
The German government claims to be well prepared for an outbreak of Ebola. Isolation units at hospitals in Frankfurt, Berlin, Düsseldorf, Leipzig, Munich, Stuttgart and Hamburg could hold a total of 50 Ebola patients, it said. There are currently no plans to increase the number of units.
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