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The Trump administration is establishing a quarantine facility in Kenya to house Americans exposed to Ebola during the current outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. An administration official confirmed the plan on Wednesday, noting that the move represents a significant change in protocol. In previous outbreaks, Americans exposed to the virus were typically flown back to the United States for quarantine and medical treatment.
Lawrence Gostin, the director of the World Health Organization Collaborating Center on National and Global Health Law, said the decision to quarantine Americans in Kenya is “unprecedented.”
“It is likely to cost American lives,” Gostin wrote in an email. “We have an ethical duty to protect U.S. citizens, especially brave health and humanitarian workers who have cared for Ebola patients. It is impossible to give high quality care to Ebola patients in Kenya, compared with our state-of-the-art facilities in the U.S.”
During a White House Cabinet meeting Wednesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the administration’s No. 1 priority is to protect the American people.
“We cannot and will not allow any cases of Ebola to enter the United States,” Rubio said.
The outbreak in Congo has rapidly worsened, with cases climbing to more than 1,000 and deaths topping 200, according to the World Health Organization.
The administration has already begun evacuating Americans from the region.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has also blocked U.S. entry for non-U.S. citizens who visited Congo, Uganda or South Sudan within the past 21 days. While U.S. citizens are exempt, they’re being rerouted to specific airports for additional health screenings.
The Kenya facility, the administration official said, is intended to get Americans access to care faster and avoid lengthy medical evacuation flights, which can take more than 12 hours.
The official said the facility — developed through a coordinated effort involving the departments of State, Defense, and Health and Human Services — would be equipped to treat “the full spectrum” of Ebola, including patients who need intensive or critical care.
It wasn’t immediately clear where in Kenya the facility would be built or whether Kenyan government officials had agreed to the plan.
