White House denies blocking Ebola evacuation

By Nela Heidner Published on 21/05/2026 - 10:51 GMT+2 Share Comments Share Facebook Twitter Flipboard Send Reddit Linkedin Messenger Telegram VK Bluesky Threads Whatsapp

The White House has denied a report claiming that the United States blocked the return of Ebola-infected missionary doctor Peter Stafford.

According to a Washington Post report, the United States initially refused to allow an American doctor infected with Ebola to return home. The newspaper cites five sources familiar with the matter. As a result, the doctor’s evacuation was delayed before he was eventually flown to Germany. The White House rejected this account, calling it “absolutely false.”

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Dr Peter Stafford, a missionary doctor, had been working in Bunia in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo when he treated a patient with severe abdominal pain. The case was first believed to be an inflamed gallbladder, but that diagnosis was later ruled out. The patient died the next day, most likely from Ebola, and was buried before a test could be carried out.

Eight days later, Dr Stafford himself began to show non-specific symptoms, including fever, pain, shivering and extreme fatigue.

During the 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa, the first two American patients were flown to Atlanta for treatment. At the time, Donald Trump criticised the decision, as shown in an August 2014 post on X (then Twitter).

According to people familiar with the situation, concerns about public reaction to a possible Ebola case entering the United States again were a factor in White House deliberations, the magazine reports.

White House spokesman Kush Desai rejected the claim that the administration did not want to bring Peter Stafford back to the United States.

"That is absolutely false and yet another reason why the Washington Post is no longer worth the paper it is printed on," he wrote in an email. "The Trump administration’s overriding and sole priority is the health and safety of the American people. The Charité in Germany is internationally recognised as one of the world’s leading centres for the treatment and containment of viral diseases such as Ebola and is on a par with the top clinics in the United States."

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Satish Pillai, a US scientist at the University of California, San Francisco, told reporters on Tuesday that the key issue was ensuring rapid and appropriate treatment. Germany had been chosen as the first place of treatment because Europe is closer to Africa than the United States and offers access to first-class medical care.

The disease can lead to shock and multiple organ failure within a matter of days.

The wife and four children of the infected US doctor are now also at Berlin’s Charité hospital. According to the Federal Health Ministry, which spoke during the night, they have been admitted to the university hospital’s special isolation ward. Their transfer was preceded by a corresponding request for assistance from the US authorities.

Meanwhile, a plane operated by the French airline Air France flying from Paris to Detroit was diverted to Canada at short notice because of tightened US entry rules linked to Ebola. As the US border protection agency confirmed to US media, the aircraft was denied entry into US airspace after it emerged that a passenger on board had previously been in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The Ebola outbreak has been confirmed as the Bundibugyo strain of the virus, which has a fatality rate of around 25 to 50 percent. There are no vaccines or targeted treatments available for this strain.

So far there have been almost 600 suspected cases and 139 deaths in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the number of cases is expected to continue to rise.

However, the true number of infections is likely to be higher.

The condition of the American doctor who contracted Ebola and is now being treated at the Charité is, however, beginning to improve. He is reportedly now able to eat again.

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