An American doctor infected with the Ebola virus is being treated in a high-level isolation unit at the Charite University Hospital in Berlin. The patient contracted the disease in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
American officials asked Germany for assistance due to Europe’s short flying distance compared to North America. Several family members were also evacuated to Germany and are considered close contacts of the infection, according to the German Health Ministry.
“A patient with Ebola disease may be in critical condition. And your resources on an evacuation airplane are limited. So, you want a shorter flight route, but to a center with very high medical standards,” Thomas Parish, a medical doctor and CEO of the Pandemic Shield consultancy, said in an interview with DW.
Most cases of Ebola have occurred on the African continent where the virus is considered endemic in some regional locations.
It is a zoonotic infectious disease. It circulates in animals and can naturally reach humans.
High-security isolation units prevent transmission
In Germany, Ebola patients are treated exclusively in high-level isolation units.
These facilities, such as those at Charite, are completely separate from regular hospital operations. According to the German Health Ministry, this means there is no danger to the public.
Safety measures are extensive: outgoing air is filtered, waste water is collected and neutralized, and contaminated materials such as protective suits are disposed of separately from general hospital waste. Most medical care also takes place within the unit – from diagnosis to intensive care.
Ebola belongs to the highest biological risk category (risk group 4), as do Lassa and Marburg viruses.
“Patients must therefore be transported and treated under the highest safety standards,” said Torsten Feldt, an infectious diseases physician and head of the tropical medicine unit at Heinrich Heine University Hospital in Düsseldorf, Germany.
Employees wear special protective suits equipped with independent air supply. And the units are negative pressure chambers, with advanced air filtration systems. In negative pressure rooms the flow of fresh air is less than that of exhaust, and this reduces the risk of airborne contamination. They also include barriers such as antechamber and self-closing inter-locking doors.
Germany has strong networks and experienced teams
There are seven such facilities in Germany, designed to treat highly infectious, life-threatening diseases. they are all part of STAKOB NetworkWhich is coordinated by the German federal agency Robert Koch Institute.
Charite’s isolation unit is the largest of its kind in Germany and the only one that combines infectious disease treatment with intensive care. The self-contained unit can isolate up to 20 patients, without disrupting normal hospital operations.
Staff regularly undergo training on procedures and emergency scenarios. Some of them have international experience of other infectious outbreaks, including in West Africa.
Germany has built a “very strong reputation” through this work, Feldt said.
Rare but highly complex operation
Such cases are rare in Germany. The last time patients were evacuated this way was in 2014 and 2015 during the largest-ever Ebola outbreak and epidemic in West Africa. At that time many patients were taken to Germany for treatment.
Each case involves a massive logistical and medical effort. “Even for very experienced doctors, this is extraordinary,” Parrish said.
Studies have shown how important it is to have the best treatment conditions. Parish said the death rate sometimes reached more than 50% during the outbreak in West Africa, but has seen the death rate drop to about 20% among patients being treated in Europe after leaving the epicenter of the outbreak.
Intensive care is the key to survival
Treating Ebola is complex. For infections caused by the Zaire strain, specific drugs are available, but for other types, treatment is often experimental or limited to supportive care.
“Supportive care can significantly reduce mortality,” Feldt said.
However, there is no approved vaccine for the Ebola strain in the current outbreak.
There are two vaccines for the most deadly form of Ebola, known as Ebola virus disease (EVD). Tension. But there is none for Bundibugyo virus, which caused a pandemic in May 2026.
The World Health Organization (WHO) is evaluating experimental, candidate vaccines – those in pre-clinical or clinical trials – but it could be several months before any are available.
Global efforts needed to overcome Ebola
The current Ebola outbreak shows the importance of global care systems: experts say high-protection medicine is not just a national responsibility, but part of global health preparedness.
Even the most advanced medical systems have limitations. According to WHOControlling the virus often depends on factors beyond clinical care: “The key to stopping transmission lies in working at the grassroots level within communities” – including raising awareness, countering misinformation, and ensuring compliance with hygiene measures, especially in high-risk, infectious situations such as during funerals, as Ebola is contagious even after a person has died.
The case also highlights a structural imbalance that can be corrected: high-level isolation units are unevenly distributed globally.
It’s important to build similar capabilities in parts of the Global South, Parish said, at least in politically stable countries where this kind of infrastructure is possible: “These high-level isolation units [are only in] Global Answers. I can’t understand it.”
This article was originally published in German.