The US government is arranging to transfer Americans exposed to Ebola to a new quarantine center in Kenya instead of bringing them back to the United States. Trump administration officials have directed the US military to establish a quarantine facility in central Kenya within a week, as reported by The Washington Post. The facility will accommodate Americans exposed to the virus in biocontainment units brought from the US.
Initially, the plan involves setting up a 50-bed unit within a week, with the potential to increase it to 250 beds. Personnel from the US Public Health Service are undergoing training at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland to operate the facility in Kenya, according to the report. This move comes after the US government recently transported an American doctor showing symptoms to a hospital in Germany and placed six other Americans under observation in Germany and the Czech Republic, as per Xinhua news agency.
In response to the Ebola situation, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had imposed a 30-day suspension on the entry of foreign nationals who had been in the DRC, Uganda, or South Sudan in the past 21 days. This measure was later expanded to include lawful permanent residents, or green card holders. The Democratic Republic of the Congo has reported over 1,000 suspected Ebola cases, with the outbreak spreading across eastern provinces. The country’s Ministry of Health disclosed that there have been 121 confirmed Ebola cases and 238 suspected deaths since the outbreak was declared on May 15.
The outbreak has impacted 13 health zones in the eastern provinces of Ituri, North Kivu, and South Kivu, with Ituri being the focal point. This current outbreak is the 17th Ebola epidemic in the country, with laboratory tests identifying the Bundibugyo strain of the virus, a relatively uncommon form of Ebola.
