Kenya Agrees to Host US Ebola Quarantine Base

Kenya has approved a request from the United States to establish a quarantine facility for Americans who may have been exposed to Ebola. The centre is expected to be located at an air base in the Laikipia region of central Kenya.

The decision comes as World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus travels to the Democratic Republic of Congo, where an outbreak of the rare Bundibugyo strain of Ebola is spreading. There is currently no approved vaccine or treatment for this variant.

The WHO has declared the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern. According to the organisation, efforts to contain what has become the third-largest Ebola outbreak in history have already been delayed by weeks, if not months.

The United States has meanwhile introduced strict precautionary measures. Washington has temporarily barred entry to green card holders who have travelled to Congo, Uganda, or South Sudan within the past 21 days.

The planned facility in Kenya is expected to be staffed by US medical personnel. According to American officials, Nairobi insisted that the centre should remain open to all nationalities rather than exclusively to US citizens.

The decision has triggered criticism within Kenya. The country’s health workers’ union stated that Kenya “is not a geopolitical isolation zone”, while the legal organisation Katiba Institute has filed a lawsuit challenging the US request.

Since the outbreak was confirmed in mid-May, more than 1,000 suspected infections and hundreds of suspected deaths have been reported. The WHO has warned that the true scale of the epidemic may be significantly larger.

(reuters, bak)