Aid Groups Warn US Quarantine Policy Will Slow Ebola Fight

A new Washington regulation requiring US citizens returning from the Democratic Republic of the Congo to spend 21 days in quarantine in a third country before entering the United States will significantly hamper efforts to contain the Ebola outbreak, Franklin Graham, CEO of the evangelical humanitarian organization Samaritan's Purse, said.

Samaritan's Purse operates treatment centers in the outbreak's epicenter and has about 80 US citizens deployed in the field.

Graham warned that requiring aid workers to spend three weeks in quarantine away from home would make it much harder to recruit temporary medical volunteers who take leave from their regular jobs in the United States to serve in Congo. He also said the policy would increase the organization's transportation and accommodation costs.

The US Department of Health and Human Services says the restrictions are intended to reduce the risk of Ebola being brought into the United States. Secretary of State Marco Rubio introduced strict entry restrictions on foreign nationals months ago, and the US has been planning a quarantine facility in Kenya.

The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, caused by the Bundibugyo strain, is the third largest on record, with more than 2,000 cases and nearly 800 deaths.

(Reuters, Max)