Protester killed in Kenya in protest against US quarantine center for Ebola patients

Anti-riot police disperse protesters at a protest in Kenya
REUTERS/Monicah Mwangi
A protester was shot and killed during a protest against a quarantine center built by the United States in Kenya for Americans exposed to Ebola, this Tuesday (9), in the city of Nanyuki, in the central region of the country.
The death occurred amid a huge riot. Police used tear gas and water cannons against hundreds of protesters who gathered next to the Laikipia Air Base, where construction has begun on a 50-bed unit to receive US citizens exposed to the Ebola outbreak in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda.
Reporters from the Reuters news agency, who were at the scene, did not witness the shooting, but saw the man's body, with a large wound in the back of the head, inside a police vehicle.
According to a Reuters witness, at least 10 people were detained by police.
Police detain protester during protest in Kenya
REUTERS/Monicah Mwangi
Protester Priscilla Imani said the area's association with the quarantine center was turning away tourists who normally come to climb Mount Kenya or see rhinos in a nearby nature reserve:
"My message is this: Laikipia is not a garbage dump and our voices need to be heard."
Kenyans have been protesting against the US government's authorization to build the quarantine center since it was announced. Last week, two people had already been killed.
Residents fear being exposed to the virus through patients transported to the site. There is no record, so far, of Ebola cases in the country, in the current outbreak of the disease.
Pace of spread of Ebola is outpacing response efforts, says WHO
The Minister of Health, Aden Duale, defended that the quarantine center is for "everyone", and not exclusively for American citizens.
In a statement, the US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, stated that the US government intends to invest US$13.5 million in Kenya's preparedness efforts against Ebola.
Global health emergency
At least 282 confirmed cases have been reported in the DRC, with more than 1,000 suspected cases of the Bundibugyo virus, the current variant of Ebola, which has no approved treatment or vaccine.
The new variant of Ebola has caused the virus to spread rapidly across the Democratic Republic of the Congo and raises an alarm for a new regional epidemic of the disease.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the outbreak in the country probably began a few months ago and that the response from international health bodies was "a little late".
Ebola is a rare but serious disease in humans, which often leads to death - the average fatality rate of the disease is 50%.
It spreads among humans through direct contact with blood, secretions or other bodily fluids of infected people and with contaminated surfaces and materials.

Source: G1

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