2nd American infected with Ebola in DRC evacuated to Germany, WHO chief says
Medical workers disinfect a facility used to treat an Ebola patient at the Heal Africa Hospital on June 4, 2026 in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo. (Daniel Buuma/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — A second American citizen infected with Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has been transferred to Germany for care, the head of the World Health Organization said on Monday.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced over the weekend that the unnamed patient works for a humanitarian aid organization and tested positive for the Bundibugyo virus, the strain of Ebola that is behind the DRC’s outbreak.
In a post on X on Monday, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the WHO, said the organization “has provided clinical care and close monitoring” for the patient in the Ituri province, where most of the DRC’s cases have been confirmed.
Samaritan’s Purse, which has been responding to the outbreak, confirmed on Monday that one of their staff members is the infected patient.
“We can confirm that one of our Samaritan’s Purse staff members working in Bunia, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), has tested positive for the Ebola virus,” Franklin Graham, president and CEO of Samaritan’s Purse, said in a statement. “This respected and faithful staff member has been a part of our Disaster Assistance Response Team for 15 years and has been serving in a logistics capacity in the DRC over the past month. He was not involved in direct patient care at our two Ebola Treatment Centers.”
Samaritan’s Purse said it immediately contacted the CDC, the State Department and the DRC’s government upon learning of the positive test and that the organization has begun contact tracing.
The first American infected with Ebola was a doctor who contracted the disease while treating patients in the DRC. Dr. Peter Stafford was evacuated to Germany at the time to receive specialty care and was hospitalized at Charité University Hospital in Berlin, according to Serge, the international Christian missionary group that employs him.
His wife, Dr. Rebekah Stafford, and their four children were also evacuated to Germany and moved into a separate space at the hospital as high-risk contacts. Peter Stafford was discharged from the hospital in June, and the family has since returned to the United States.
The outbreak in the DRC has led to more than 1,900 cases and more than 700 deaths, according to the latest figures from the DRC’s Ministry of Health.
“As infections among response personnel are not unexpected in an outbreak of this scale, protecting frontline responders must remain a top priority,” the WHO’s Tedros wrote on X. “We are deeply grateful for the courage and commitment of all health workers working to end this outbreak.”
A medical assistant holds a measles, mumps and rubella vaccine at the pediatric office of Dr. Gary M. Kramer on Aug. 13, 2026, in Coral Gables, Florida. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Prior to this year, Dr. John Goldman said he’d only seen two cases of measles throughout his career: one in the late 1980s and one in the early 1990s.
Now, Goldman said measles patients are being admitted to the hospital on a regular basis.
“We’ve had patients that have shown up in our outpatient offices. We’ve had patients show up in the hospital. We’ve had patients that have come in for other problems and then develop measles while they’re in the hospital,” Goldman, an infectious disease specialist for the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center in central Pennsylvania, told ABC News.
He went on, “So, we’ve gone from seeing this as an extremely rare disease, one that I literally have not seen in 30 years, to something that is now common, where we’re seeing it literally every day.”
Pennsylvania is facing one of its worst measles outbreaks in recent years, recording 693 cases so far this year with 133 hospitalizations, according to the state department of health.
The epicenter of the outbreak is in Lancaster County, in southeastern Pennsylvania, with 296 cases reported.
At least four measles deaths have been confirmed by the Pennsylvania Department of Health, which is the highest number of deaths recorded in the U.S. since 1992.
‘Almost certainly underestimating cases’
Goldman, who supports about seven hospitals in the greater Harrisburg area, said UPMC Lititz in Lancaster County has had about 50 measles patients this year.
However, he believes the number of cases, both in Lancaster County and in Pennsylvania overall, is an undercount.
“The worst part is we’re almost certainly underestimating the cases,” Goldman said. “What often happens is someone shows up in the emergency room or shows up in the hospital, and they’ll report that they have five or six people at home who were sick with what they think is measles … so we don’t test everybody.”
Dr. Patrick Gavigan, a pediatric infectious disease physician at Penn State Health Golisano Children’s Hospital in Dauphin County, which borders epicenter Lancaster County, said about 10 children have been admitted to the hospital with complications from measles in 2026.
Similarly, Gavigan said most of the children admitted to the hospital with measles came from families where everyone was previously sick with the disease.
“I would say fever, rash and respiratory distress are probably the most common [symptoms],” he told ABC News. “We’ve seen some more like gastrointestinal symptoms with some of our cases as well, including like hepatitis.”
Most of the children are unvaccinated and have come from communities that “don’t vaccinate,” Gavigan said.
He added that hospitals are getting more calls each week about patients infected with measles.
Increasing interest in vaccination
The CDC currently recommends two doses of the measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) vaccine, the first between ages 12 and 15 months and the second between ages 4 and 6. One dose is 93% effective, and two doses are 97% effective against measles, the CDC says.
Data from the Pennsylvania Department of Health shows that 6,725 MMR doses have been administered by health department staff in 2026. Fewer than 1,000 doses were administered each month from January through July but August saw about 3,500 doses administered.
This correlates with a spike in measles cases recorded in August, according to health department data.
The doctors told ABC News there has been an increase in MMR vaccinations at their respective hospitals.
“Talking with our general pediatricians, I think there has been [an] increased desire to get MMR even potentially in some people who aren’t getting other vaccines,” said Gavigan.
Gavigan said pediatricians in the area have also been answering questions from parents about whether their child should get an early third dose.
The CDC said early vaccination for infants living in outbreak areas. This would result in three doses overall: an early dose between age 6 months and 11 months and then the two regularly scheduled doses.
“I think there is definitely more of a perceived threat based on people hearing about all the cases and hearing about cases nearby and potentially even getting letters that they’ve been exposed to measles when they’ve been at the hospital or various places,” Gavigan said.
Local communities have also been offering opportunities to get vaccinated.
In Chester County, which also borders Lancaster and 65 confirmed measles cases, the county government has hosted free MMR clinics for children and adults, some in conjunction with the state health department.
Jeanne Franklin, public health director of the Chester County Health Department, told ABC News that local health care professionals have gone into people’s homes or businesses to vaccinate them with the MMR shot.
“We basically just said, ‘We’ve got to do some at-home vaccinations,'” Franklin explained. “It’s not an everyday type of service … but we’re doing it now and that has been a huge success.”
And some individuals say they’re more comfortable receiving the vaccine at home, she noted.
As of Monday, the Chester County Public Health Department has administered 538 MMR doses, according to Franklin.
The ChildProtect program at Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health has continued to provide free vaccinations for uninsured children in Lancaster County usually at in remote, rural areas.
Goldman said he and colleagues have seen an increase in people visiting UPMC hospitals and clinics for the MMR vaccine, particularly since the measles outbreak began.
Some UPMC staff have partnered with healthcare providers in communities with lower vaccination rates and have offered the vaccine in those areas, Goldman said.
Goldman said he’s heard anecdotally about cases of “semi-clandestine vaccination,” meaning people receiving the MMR vaccine without telling their friends, family or neighbors.
“Neighbors might judge them, or they’re in communities which discourage vaccination, and so they sometimes don’t want to know, let their friends or neighbors know that they’ve been vaccinated,” Goldman said.
More ‘aggressive’ screening
Goldman said UPMC hospitals and clinics are beginning to more aggressively screen people who arrive with measles-like symptoms so other patients aren’t exposed.
This includes patients with symptoms including rash, fever, cough and conjunctivitis, also known as pink eye.
“The problem is that there are some people who will just have a fever and we later find they test positive for measles,” Goldman said. “It will surprise me if we can catch every case.”
avigan said Golisano Children’s Hospital has put signage outside the hospital to increase awareness that there’s a measles outbreak in the hopes of identifying potentially infected patients.
“It’s essentially a sign that lists common symptoms, asks if you’ve been exposed and, if you have, to call into the hospital where they could triage you over the phone so that you’re not sitting in a waiting area potentially spreading measles,” Gavigan said.
Penn Medicine said signs are displayed outside hospitals and some outpatient offices requesting certain individuals to call for guidance before entering, including those who are not vaccinated or have measles symptoms.
Spreading awareness
Penn Medicine said two pediatricians in its Lancaster facilities wrote a series of op-eds for their local newspaper explaining how vaccine-preventable diseases can be dangerous and how vaccines protect both the recipient and those around them.
The two pediatricians said some of the patients have brought printed copies of the articles to discuss at appointments.
Gavigan said he occasionally meets children in clinic who are unvaccinated — not just against measles — and he using this as an opportunity to talk about the importance of vaccination.
“We’ve had lots of, I think, different conversations about the MMR vaccine in different populations,” he said. “It does seem like there has been, at least anecdotally, more willingness to think about vaccines in general and MMR.”
Franklin, from Chester County, said members of the public health department have gone into various communities to meet residents and assess where they are in terms of their knowledge on the disease or vaccination.
“If they think they want the vaccine, then we’re focusing on the vaccine,” Franklin said. “If nobody has talked to these folks, then, we’re going to start at the beginning: ‘What is measles? What does it look like? How does it impact you, et cetera’ And then we’ll get to the vaccine.”
She added, “If we’re not hitting the right avenues and meeting them where they are at the start, they’re not hearing it, and it’s no fault of their own. So we meet them where they’re at in their understanding.”
Computer graphic image of a virus as seen like through a microscope. (Yuichiro Chino/Getty Images)
The U.S. State Department is monitoring a reportedly fatal case of “pneumonia of an unknown etiology” linked to a plague research laboratory in Russia.
“We are aware of reports of a fatal case of suspected pneumonic plague in Irkutsk Oblast, Russia. We are monitoring the situation closely with the CDC and our other interagency partners,” a spokesperson from the State Department said.
“Many details have not been confirmed. We encourage Russian authorities to share accurate information quickly and openly,” the spokesperson added.
Where the case of plague has been detected
Health authorities in Russia’s Irkutsk region launched anti-epidemic measures after an employee of a plague institute was diagnosed with “pneumonia of an unknown etiology,” the country’s sanitary watchdog agency, Rospotrebnadzor, confirmed on Sunday.
The lab involved is the Anti-Plague Research Institute in Shelekhov, in southern Siberia, Russia.
The statement comes after some Russian media and public figures reported a death potentially due to the plague and linked to a lab worker. Russian officials did not provide further details on the worker.
The Russian agency’s statement said that “no accidents have been detected at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Institute while working with pathogenic microorganisms.”
Their statement added that “the sanitary and epidemiological situation” in the Irkutsk Region, the cities of Irkutsk and Shelekhov, is “stable.”
How Russian authorities are responding
Regional governor Igor Kobzev said in a statement on Friday that people who had contact with a resident who contracted a “particularly dangerous infection” were placed under medical observation.
Responding to the growing speculation, the governor on Monday said that “no microorganisms associated with the woman’s professional activities were found in her biomaterials” and that no other lab workers have sought medical help in recent days.
Officials said none of the identified contacts were showing symptoms so far and their laboratory tests were negative, according to Kobzev.
Before Rospotrebnadzor reported that the employee’s illness was due to pneumonia with an unknown cause, Alexei Tsydenov, the head of Buryatia, a region neighboring Irkutsk Oblast, suggested that a woman may have died of the plague.
Citing Buryatia’s health officials, Tsydenov wrote in a post on his Telegram channel on Friday that “the woman who died – possibly from the plague – in the Irkutsk Region had not visited Buryatia,” assuring Buryatia residents that “there are no plague outbreaks in the republic.”
Amid the investigation, some protective measures have been announced in the region. A mask mandate has been implemented at the Irkutsk Aluminum Plant in Shelekhov, according to the plant’s director, Artem Fominykh.
“Better safe than sorry,” Fominykh wrote in a post on his Telegram channel on Saturday, asking the employees to “follow the precautions.” He added that some conflicting information about the situation is circulating in Shelekhov, and urged the plant employees to seek medical attention immediately if they experience any symptoms.
US response
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in a statement on Sunday that it is “monitoring the situation closely” with the State Department.
“The safety and security of U.S. citizens is our highest priority,” the CDC said.
“Many details have not been confirmed. We encourage Russian authorities to share accurate information quickly and openly,” a State Department spokesperson said in a statement.
“Plague is a known disease and is treatable with common antibiotics, especially when treatment starts early. Cases occur naturally in many parts of the world,” the statement added.
What to know about plague and its transmission
Plague is a disease caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, according to the CDC.
Humans can contract the disease after being bitten by an infected rodent flea, coming into contact with contaminated fluid or tissue from an infected animal or by inhaling infected droplets in the air.
There are three types of plague: bubonic, pneumonic and septicemic. Symptoms often include fever, chills, and weakness.
Pneumonic is the most serious form and the only one that can potentially spread between people. It occurs when bacteria spread to the lungs of a patient with untreated bubonic or septicemic plague, or when a person inhales infectious droplets, according to the CDC.
Bubonic plague is infamously responsible for the deaths of millions of people in Europe during the 1300s. While the disease still exists, modern medicine and public health efforts have made it less threatening.
Plague can be treated with a course of antibiotics. The earlier antibiotics are received, the higher are the chances of a full recovery.
The U.S. averages about seven cases of plague each year, mostly on the West Coast in states such as Arizona and New Mexico, according to the CDC. It’s been more than a century since the U.S. has seen a documented case of person-to-person spread of plague, per the CDC.
Stock photo of a doctor examining a patient’s skin. (Lordhenrivoton/STOCK PHOTO/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Merck and Moderna announced Wednesday that a personalized mRNA-based cancer vaccine succeeded in a large, late-stage trial among high-risk patients with melanoma.
The individualized vaccine, when paired with the existing immunotherapy, Keytruda, is the first and only combination regimen that demonstrated success in potentially extending melanoma patients’ lifespans.
In Phase 3 trials, the regimen significantly reduced the risk of cancer returning or spreading. The trial was conducted among patients whose high-risk melanoma had been surgically removed.
The combination treatment regimen pairs the personalized vaccine with Merck’s Keytruda, which had previously been used to treat the cancer alone.
The treatment showed a 49% reduction of melanoma return after patients underwent surgery and a 59% reduction of metastasization of the cancer to distant organs.
Key questions surrounding regulatory review of the vaccine remain.
The Food and Drug Administration has not yet approved the vaccine. The agency will review the full data once it has been collected and submitted.
While the FDA has already approved other cancer vaccines, this new treatment represents a step forward in the field as it uses mRNA technology and personalized treatment for each patient.
Merck and Moderna plan to present data at an upcoming international medical meeting where they hope to engage regulators on filing submissions for approval of the regimen, the companies said in a joint press release.
Dr. Ahmad Tarhini, an oncologist at the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute, told ABC News that he expects the treatment to be approved based on very positive trial results and made available to patients likely by early 2027.
The vaccine uses genetic information from patients’ individual tumors to identify and attack the cancer.
“It’s what we call individualized neoantigen therapy, where we take the cancer itself, we do genetic sequencing and try to define a unique mutational fingerprint of the cancer itself,” Tarhini said.
Melanoma is the deadliest form of skin cancer, with about 112,000 new cases expected in 2026, according to the American Cancer Society.
The treatment is considered relatively safe, according to the companies. The most common side effects include fatigue, sore arm and chills.
Treatments utilizing mRNA technologies are being used in trials for other forms of cancer, including that of the bladder, kidney, lungs, stomach and pancreas, according to Tarhini.
“I think it will certainly improve the outcome of our patients,” Tarhini said. “We are, you know, excited about this development. My expectation is this will eventually change the standard care of our patients.”
