US Ebola quarantine facility in Kenya suspended as opposition to containment center grows
By Nimi Princewill, Larry Madowo, Lauren Kent, CNN
Nairobi, Kenya (CNN) — A Kenyan high court has temporarily frozen plans by the United States to establish an Ebola quarantine and treatment facility in Kenya – which has not recorded any Ebola cases – for Americans potentially exposed to the deadly virus in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), more than 1,500 miles away.
The move comes after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio vowed earlier this week that the US “cannot and will not allow any cases of Ebola to enter the United States,” prompting sharp opposition from Kenyan civil society which railed against an apparent double-standard. The rapidly spreading outbreak, which was officially declared on May 15 in the DRC, is believed to be responsible for at least 238 deaths and caused more than 1,000 suspected infections.
The deadly outbreak is driven by the Bundibugyo strain, a rare form of Ebola for which there is no approved vaccine or treatment. It has also spread into Uganda, which borders Kenya and the DRC. In Uganda, the virus has caused one death and at least seven confirmed cases, according to its government.
The plan by the US to set up an Ebola facility in Kenya for Americans, announced Wednesday, was criticized by Kenyan doctors and US officials working at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), according to a CDC source. It was also swiftly challenged in court by the Katiba Institute, a civil society group focused on constitutional issues in Kenya.
In orders issued late Thursday, High Court Judge Patricia Nyaundi barred Kenya from establishing or operating any Ebola-related facility under agreements with the US or other foreign governments and from admitting anyone exposed to or infected with the virus into the country until the legal challenge is resolved. The case is set to return to court on June 2.
‘State-of-the-art’ facility
Trump administration officials had described the proposed facility as “state-of-the-art” and “designed to provide access to high-quality care for Americans who would need to quickly get out of DRC and quarantine without the risks of a lengthy transport back to the US.”
Earlier this month, an American doctor working in the DRC who tested positive for Ebola was evacuated to Germany for treatment. At the same time, another US national with high-risk exposure was transferred to the Czech Republic for care.
A senior Trump administration official said the US had received approval from the Kenyan government for a 50-bed quarantine unit, which was expected to go into operation Friday.
The facility’s location was scheduled to be located on the Laikipia Airbase, about 125 miles north of the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, with additional isolation and biocontainment capacity to be added later, according to the US official. Patients who developed symptoms or tested positive would be moved to other facilities, the official said.
A spokesperson for the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) told CNN on Thursday evening: “The US Public Health Service Commissioned Corps is deploying a team of highly trained officers to Kenya to support the care, monitoring, and quarantine of American citizens departing the Democratic Republic of the Congo as part of a coordinated interagency effort with the State Department and Department of War.”
The “deployed team includes physicians, nurses, laboratory technologists, mental health professionals, and engineers – including officers with previous Ebola response experience in Liberia during the 2014-2015 outbreak,” the spokesperson said.
Why Kenya?
It remains unclear whether the planned facility would also treat patients of other nationalities – a lack of clarity that has fueled concern among Kenyans.
The Ebola facility plan comes as Kenya and the US government recently renegotiated the amount of aid funding for Kenyan health efforts as part of the new US global health strategy.
The proposal drew opposition from Kenya’s main doctors’ union and the Law Society of Kenya, both of which warned it could risk importing Ebola into the country.
Dr. Davji Bhimji Atellah, secretary-general of the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPDU), told CNN: “We need total transparency from the Kenyan government on why they agreed to take up this offer.”
Atellah, who leads the union that represents more than 10,000 doctors in public and private hospitals, also questioned the rationale for locating the facility in Kenya, noting the country’s strained healthcare system.
“What makes the US choose Kenya when the epicenter of the outbreak is in (the Democratic Republic of) Congo?” he said.
“We will not sit back and watch Kenya be treated as a containment colony for a lethal pathogen that we did not generate,” Atellah said, adding: “If it is too dangerous for America, it is too dangerous for Kenya.”
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CNN’s Jamie Gumbrecht, Caitlin Danaher and Jennifer Hansler contributed to this report.
