KINSHASA, Congo — A doctor from the United States is among the newly confirmed cases in an outbreak of the Ebola virus in the Congo, officials said Monday.
According to The Associated Press, the American victim is suffering from a rare variant of the virus that has no approved vaccines.
The news comes two days after the World Health Organization declared that the spread of the Ebola virus in two African countries constituted a global health emergency.
Dr. Jean-Jacques Muyembe, medical director of the Congolese National Institute of Bio-Medical Research, told the AP that the doctor contracted the virus in Bunia, the capital of the Ituri province.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also confirmed that the American had the virus, CNN reported. Authorities did not name the person.
However, the missionary group Serge told CBS News that Dr. Peter Stafford tested positive for the Bundibugyo ebolavirus variant after being exposed while treating patients at Nyankunde Hospital, in the Congo city of Bunia. Stafford’s wife, Rebekah Stafford, and Patrick LaRochelle, who are also physicians, remain asymptomatic, the group said.
Stafford has served at the hospital since 2023, the news outlet reported.
“All three medical professionals have strictly adhered to established quarantine protocols since the potential exposure,” Serge said in a statement on its website.
As of Monday, there were more than 300 suspected cases and 118 deaths in the Ituri and North Kivu provinces and two deaths in neighboring Uganda, according to the AP.
The Bundibugyo strain spread undetected for at least a few weeks, health experts and aid workers told the news organization. Cases have now been confirmed in Bunia, Goma, Mongbwalu, Butembo and Nyakunde.
[ WHO declares Ebola outbreak a global health emergency ]
There have been 10 confirmed cases and 336 suspected cases in the Congo, CDC officials said on Sunday. U.S. health officials are working to move seven victims -- including the U.S. citizen -- to Germany, Capt. Satish K. Pillai, a doctor and incident manager for the CDC’s Ebola response, told CNN.
“Because early tests looked for the wrong strain of Ebola, we got false negatives and lost weeks of response time,” Matthew M. Kavanagh, director of the Georgetown University Center for Global Health Policy and Politics, told the AP. “We are playing catch-up against a very dangerous pathogen.”