White House denies it resisted letting American doctor infected with ebola return to US for treatment

Officials in the White House denied delaying the evacuation of an American doctor who contracted Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo after a report claimed officials were reluctant to bring him back to the United States.

After Dr. Peter Stafford, an American physician working in the DRC with a nonprofit Christian ministry, tested positive for Ebola, officials from the CDC and Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response reportedly advocated to send him to a facility in the U.S. with special biocontainment units.

However, White House officials allegedly said they did not want Stafford back in the United States, the Washington Post reported. Ultimately, Stafford was flown to Germany, where he is receiving care at Berlin’s Charite University Hospital.

White House Spokesperson Kush Desai called the Washington Post’s report “absolutely false” and said Stafford was flown to Germany because it’s 12 hours closer to the DRC than the United States and “time is of the essence.”

“Given that this American was in a very unstable part of the DRC, which as a whole is an unstable country, the Administration did what it could to most efficiently and effectively maximize this American’s odds of survival and minimize the odds of further transmission,” Desai said in a statement.

Stafford, 39, was treating patients in a remote area of the DRC when he fell ill. His location made it more complicated to evacuate him swiftly, requiring multiple flights, including one where he was placed in a containment tube.

Ebola, a deadly infection that spreads person-to-person through bodily fluids, damages blood vessels, which can lead to life-threatening symptoms such as excessive bleeding, vomiting, organ failure and more.

Four Ebola viruses cause disease. Stafford tested positive for the Bundibugyo virus, which has no approved vaccines and a fatality rate between 30 and 50 percent, according to the World Health Organization.

Early medical intervention through supportive care is “lifesaving,” WHO says.

Those familiar with the matter told the Washington Post that Stafford would have been most likely to go to the Nebraska Biocontainment Unit at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. However, the quarantine facility has 20 beds, 18 of which are occupied by people quarantining from exposure to the hantavirus abroad on a cruise ship.

If Stafford had been sent there, he would have been separated from his wife and four young children, who were with him in the DRC.

“The idea that the White House was concerned that bringing a sick American back home to receive the best standard of care would somehow be poor optics is not only false, but nonsensical,” Desai said, adding that the Charite Hospital of Germany is “internationally recognized as one of the best facilities in the world for the treatment and containment of viral diseases like Ebola, on par with leading facilities here in the United States.”

Stafford and his wife were working in the Nyankunde Hospital in the region of the DRC, where the Ebola outbreak is centered. Stafford had operated on a patient who may have unknowingly had Ebola. The patient died and was buried before they could be tested.

Days later, Stafford began feeling sick, a director with Serge, the nonprofit Christian ministry that Stafford was working with, told NBC News.

By the time Stafford was evacuated, he was unable to walk without assistance, suffering from a fever and nausea. Fever and nausea are both early symptoms of Ebola.

Stafford’s wife, Dr. Rebekah Stafford, was also exposed to a patient who tested positive for Ebola but remains asymptomatic. She and their four children have also been evacuated to locations where they can be monitored.

The Ebola outbreak is currently contained to the DRC and Uganda. Health officials are working quickly to keep the disease from spreading, though some experts have expressed concern that the lack of American intervention may make it more difficult to contain. Typically, the U.S. serves as a leader in controlling epidemics and pandemics.

When asked about the Ebola outbreak, Trump said he was “concerned” but highlighted it was only confined to Africa.

“President Trump has consistently taken great risks to ensure Americans exposed to deadly and contagious diseases are safely brought back home, from quickly evacuating diplomats from China at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic to more recently repatriating the Americans who were exposed to the recent Andes virus outbreak,” Desai said.