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Germany has 50 beds ready for Ebola cases

DPA/The Local
DPA/The Local - [email protected]
Germany has 50 beds ready for Ebola cases
Medics practice receiving a highly infectious patient at Leipzig's Klinikum St. Georg. Photo: DPA

Germany could take up to 50 Ebola patients for treatment, the health ministry said on Tuesday, although there are no plans currently to admit more infected patients from West Africa.

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“At the moment 50 beds are ready which can be used immediately,” a health ministry spokesman said on Monday.

Germany is prepared to admit more patients from abroad on top of the three so far treated in Hamburg, Frankfurt and Leipzig, the spokesman added. The patient in Hamburg has recovered, while the two in Frankfurt and Leipzig are being treated.

Germany’s network of treatment centres which specialize in highly contagious disease have a good international reputation, the spokesman added. “These cases are drilled regularly.”

Addressing fears that bringing in Ebola patients to Germany could led to an outbreak in the country, Lars Schaade from the Robert Koch Institute told broadcaster ZDF: “The risk is low but it is something we must bargain for.”

Frankfurt, Düsseldorf, Munich and Hamburg airports have specialist zones at their airports where planes could be diverted with suspected cases of the disease.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has recorded more than 8,000 Ebola cases and more than 4,000 deaths in the outbreak this year. Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone in West Africa are the worst-affected countries. 

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