U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has publicly thanked Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš on X for taking in an American doctor suspected of having contracted Ebola in Congo. He also thanked all the medical staff for their assistance as well.
“Thanks to PM Andrej Babiš and all of the healthcare professionals in Prague who are taking care of the American evacuated from the Ebola outbreak. We are deeply appreciative for Czechia’s help,” Rubio posted.
Thanks to PM Andrej Babiš and all of the healthcare professionals in Prague who are taking care of the American evacuated from the Ebola outbreak. We are deeply appreciative for Czechia’s help.
— Secretary Marco Rubio (@SecRubio) May 21, 2026The doctor was flown to Prague on Thursday night after the U.S. embassy asked if he could stay in the Czech Republic until the end of the disease’s incubation period, according to the iDnes.cz news portal.
According to the American television station NBC, the 46-year-old man is a doctor for the Christian missionary organization Serge and worked at a hospital in Nyankunde in Ituri province in eastern Congo, where an epidemic of Ebola, an often fatal viral disease, broke out.
The rare Bundibugyo strain of the Ebola virus has already killed 131 people, with the World Health Organization (WHO) already declaring the outbreak “a public health emergency of international concern” five days ago.
“A 2018-2020 outbreak in eastern DRC was the second deadliest on record, killing nearly 2,300 people,” writes Reuters, noting thhat the current outbreak has “alarmed experts.”
The American in Czechia is now in isolation at the Bulovka University Hospital, which said on Thursday that he is not showing any symptoms of the disease.
