I agree with the embassy idea completely. I also think that US helath authorities should have been able to quarantine him from the start and never allow him to leave in the first place (an authority which I'm sure they will have very soon). However being told that you have a disease that is 70% fatal is enough to bring out the survival instinct in anyone.

I find it curious that the US health officials who notified him in Rome did not suggest or offer the opportunity for him to go to the US embassy, they told him to turn himself into the Italian health authorities.