MSF doctor with Ebola in Congo being evacuated to Netherlands for treatment

Leiden, Netherlands. A Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) staff member working on the Ebola response in the Democratic Republic of Congo has contracted the Ebola Bundibugyo virus and is being evacuated to the Netherlands for treatment, the organisation said on Thursday.

Evacuation under strict medical protocol

MSF said the patient was being safely evacuated under a strict medical protocol, in close coordination with the relevant health authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Netherlands, and would be received by a designated hospital.

The Dutch health ministry identified the patient as an MSF doctor deployed to Congo to help combat the outbreak. The doctor will be treated in a specialised isolation unit at the University Medical Center in Leiden, about 40 km (25 miles) southwest of Amsterdam.

“They will be placed in strict isolation,” the ministry said in a letter to parliament.

A ministry spokesperson declined to provide further details about the patient, citing privacy concerns.

Congo’s largest and deadliest Ebola outbreak

The case comes as Congo’s outbreak, caused by the Bundibugyo strain of the virus, has become the country’s largest and deadliest on record.

Government data released on Monday showed that confirmed cases had exceeded 8,000 for the first time, reaching 8,067, while the death toll stood at 3,901.

The outbreak has overtaken Congo’s 2018–2020 epidemic and is second only to the 2014–2016 West African outbreak, which infected more than 28,600 people and killed over 11,000 in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Staff exposure risk

MSF is supporting the response in Ituri, North Kivu, Tshopo and Haut-Uélé provinces. The organisation said that, despite extensive protective measures for staff, the risk of exposure could never be completely eliminated.