Kenya Has Approved Ebola Quarantine Facility for Americans: Officials

Kenya has granted approval for the creation of a quarantine facility for Americans who are exposed to Ebola in Africa, U.S. officials said May 28.

“We do have forward approval and have been in conversation with the president of Kenya on the establishment of this facility,” a senior Trump administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told reporters on a call.

The 50-bed facility will be at Laikipia Air Base and become operational on Friday, another official said. No Americans are pegged for transport there as of yet.

The administration on Wednesday confirmed plans to establish a quarantine center in Kenya but did not provide many details beyond stating it would be for asymptomatic people suspected of exposure to Ebola.

A growing Ebola outbreak centered in Congo, with cases in neighboring Uganda, has killed some 200 people, according to Congolese authorities.

Kenya shares its western border with Uganda.

Kenya has no Ebola cases, Dr. Ouma Oluga, Kenya’s health secretary, said at a briefing on Thursday.

Oluga said nearby countries are relying on Kenyan laboratories to confirm cases of Ebola and that Kenya had hundreds of international patients come there during the COVID-19 pandemic. He also said that Kenya sends some of its sick people, such as certain individuals with cancer, to other countries.

“This is our expertise, so it’s our time to show up,” he said, promising to protect Kenyans at the same time.

Aden Duale, Kenya’s secretary of health, said earlier in the week that Kenya was in discussions with the U.S. government and other partners on responding to the Ebola outbreak, and that any arrangements would be guided by Kenya’s laws and regulations.

U.S. officials told reporters Thursday that health personnel who have experience dealing with Ebola are being sent to Kenya to work at the quarantine facility. They said that the proximity to the outbreak is one of the reasons they’re sending Americans there, rather than to the United States.

No Americans With Ebola to Enter US

Seven Americans are confirmed to have been exposed to Ebola, including Dr. Peter Stafford, who contracted the deadly disease. Stafford, his wife, and their four children were flown to Charite hospital in Berlin. The other American, another doctor, was transported to a hospital in the Czech Republic.

American public health officers on the ground will facilitate the evacuation of any Americans who show symptoms of Ebola to tertiary facilities, which are still being identified by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the State Department.

Those facilities will be in Europe, one official said.

“Time can be of the essence, so transporting them to a facility that is closer in proximity to Kenya, as opposed to flying them all the way back to the United States, we feel can be critically important,” the official said.

“It is much better to be able to transport them to a facility that takes a shorter transport time, as opposed to flying them back all the way to the United States, and so our plan is to transport them to facilities that are very well equipped, that are very high level of care—the highest level of care—that’s going to be closest to where they are in Kenya, to provide the least opportunity for anything to worsen.”

Another official said that airports in Congo and Kenya have limited capabilities and can only handle certain aircraft, which complicates moving patients and narrows the number of options for people with Ebola symptoms.

During a Cabinet meeting in Washington on May 27, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said, “We cannot and will not allow any cases of Ebola to enter the United States.”

Keeping Ebola out of the United States and working to ensure Americans get high-level care is not mutually exclusive, an official said Thursday.

The U.S. government previously announced it would not let people without U.S. passports, and people with green cards, who have recently been in Congo, Uganda, or South Sudan into the United States in a bid to prevent Ebola from entering the country.