Charite said it would maintain for the next day or two the strict quarantine it imposed around its isolation unit. Tropical medicine experts treated Ullmann wearing hermetic plastic suits but were fighting a losing battle to save him after his liver and kidneys failed Thursday. Suttorp said he slipped in and out of consciousness and was finally unable to breathe. His wife was kept 50 miles away, under medical observation at home. Yellow fever is widespread in Africa and Latin America and like all viruses cannot be cured directly.
Doctors can only keep victims' strength up to help their immune systems fight it.
Swissair, which flew the Ullmanns and the couple traveling with them home via Zurich, said it handed over its passenger lists to German authorities in line with regulations. But there was no word that fellow passengers had been warned. Doctors said that as Ullmann had no symptoms on the flight, it was nearly impossible he could have passed on his disease. Medical staff at the Charite hospital criticized the media for playing up the incident. Copyright 1999 Reuters Limited.