Kenya advances Ebola quarantine center in partnership with US

The Kenyan government is moving forward with plans to establish an Ebola quarantine and treatment center on a military installation, in partnership with the United States, after a Kenyan high court temporarily banned the deal earlier this week.

The facility is for Americans potentially exposed to the deadly virus in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), more than 1,500 miles away. Kenya has not recorded any cases of Ebola.

This will help "strengthen capacity for monitoring, isolation and emergency response", Kenya's Ministry of Health said on Saturday, adding that several other isolation and treatment centers will also be set up, including at the Kenyatta National Hospital in Nairobi and the Kenya National Police Hospital.

A US government source involved in the Ebola response told CNN that Americans helping to run the facility landed on Saturday at Laikipia Air Base, where the facility will be located, about 200 kilometers north of Nairobi, the capital of Kenya.

The U.S.-Kenya partnership "further strengthens surveillance, diagnostic capabilities, emergency preparedness exercises, supply of essential medical supplies, and rapid response capabilities," the Ministry of Health said.

The move comes after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio promised earlier this week that the US "cannot and will not allow any cases of Ebola to enter the United States", provoking strong opposition from Kenyan civil society, which protested an apparent double standard. The rapidly spreading outbreak, which was officially declared on May 15 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, is believed to be responsible for at least 238 deaths and to have caused more than 1,000 suspected infections.

The deadly outbreak is caused by the Bundibugyo strain, a rare form of the Ebola virus for which there is no vaccine or approved treatment. The disease has also spread to Uganda, a country that borders Kenya and the Democratic Republic of Congo. In Uganda, the virus has caused one death and at least seven confirmed cases, according to the government.

The US plan to set up an Ebola treatment center in Kenya for US citizens, announced on Wednesday, has been criticized by Kenyan doctors and US officials working at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), according to a CDC source. The measure was also promptly challenged in court by the Katiba Institute, a civil society group focused on constitutional issues in Kenya.

In orders issued late on Thursday, High Court Judge Patricia Nyaundi banned Kenya from establishing or operating any Ebola-related facilities under agreements with the US or other foreign governments, and from admitting anyone exposed to or infected by the virus into the country until the court case is resolved. The case is due back in court on June 2.

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State-of-the-art facility
Trump administration officials described the proposed facility as "state-of-the-art" and "designed to provide access to high-quality care for Americans who need to quickly exit the Democratic Republic of the Congo and quarantine without the risks of a long transport back to the U.S."

Earlier this month, an American doctor working in the Democratic Republic of Congo who tested positive for the Ebola virus was evacuated to Germany for treatment. Simultaneously, another US citizen at high risk of exposure was transferred to the Czech Republic to receive medical care.

A senior Trump administration official said the US has received approval from the Kenyan government for a 50-bed quarantine facility, which is expected to come into operation on Friday (29).

The American official stated that additional isolation and biocontainment capacity will be expanded later at Laikipia Air Base. Patients who develop symptoms or test positive will be transferred to other facilities, the official said.

"The US Public Health Service Commissioned Officer Corps is sending a team of highly trained officers to Kenya to support the care, monitoring and quarantine of US citizens leaving the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as part of an interagency effort coordinated with the Department of State and the Department of War," a spokesperson for the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) commented to CNN on Thursday evening (28).

"The deployed team includes doctors, nurses, laboratory technicians, mental health professionals and engineers - including officers with previous experience combating Ebola in Liberia during the 2014-2015 outbreak," the spokesperson shared.

Why Kenya?
It is not yet clear whether the planned unit will also serve patients of other nationalities - a lack of clarity that has generated concern among Kenyans.

The plan for the Ebola treatment facility comes as Kenya and the US government recently renegotiated the amount of aid funding for Kenyan health efforts under the new US global health strategy.

The proposal faced opposition from Kenya's main doctors' union and the Kenya Bar Association, which warned of the risk of importing Ebola into the country.

"We need full transparency from the Kenyan government about why they accepted this offer," Dr. Davji Bhimji Atellah, general secretary of the Kenya Doctors, Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPDU), told CNN.

Atellah, who leads the union that represents more than 10,000 doctors in public and private hospitals, also questioned the logic of locating the facility in Kenya, noting the country's overburdened healthcare system.

"What makes the US choose Kenya when the epicenter of the outbreak is in the Democratic Republic of Congo?" he asked.

"We will not stand idly by while Kenya is treated as a containment colony for a lethal pathogen we did not create," Atellah said, adding: "If it is too dangerous for the United States, it is too dangerous for Kenya."

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Cases around the world
Suspected cases of Ebola are also being reported outside the outbreak zone.

On May 30, Brazil announced that it was investigating a suspected case of Ebola in the city of São Paulo, according to the state Health Department (SES-SP).

A statement obtained by CNN affiliate CNN Brasil said the patient, a 37-year-old man, had recently traveled to the Democratic Republic of Congo and subsequently developed symptoms.

He is being treated in isolation at the Emílio Ribas Institute of Infectious Diseases, a unit considered a reference center for suspected cases of Ebola. The state's Disease Control Coordination and Epidemiological Surveillance Center are monitoring the situation, but the case has not yet been confirmed by laboratory tests.

In India, two people in Gujarat and Bengaluru were quarantined after returning from Africa but later tested negative for the virus.

Two suspected cases were also investigated in Italy after patients developed symptoms after traveling from Uganda to the Lombardy region in the north of the country. However, laboratory tests carried out in a Milan hospital were negative for the Ebola virus.

While confirmed cases in the current outbreak have only been reported in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Red Cross has warned that 10 other African countries are at risk: Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania, Angola, Burundi, Central African Republic, Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, South Sudan and Zambia.

CNN's Jamie Gumbrecht, Caitlin Danaher, Jennifer Hansler and Billy Stockwell contributed to this report.

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Source: CNN