The Trump administration is building an Ebola isolation and treatment center in Kenya for U.S. citizens affected by the outbreak,
instead of bringing them home. A White House official confirmed to The Guardian that the facility is designed to provide high-quality medical care for Americans who need to quickly leave the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and undergo isolation without the risks of long-distance transport back to the United States.
According to the official, the center will also treat U.S. citizens with Ebola, including those requiring intensive care, but each case will be assessed for possible transfer if needed to maximize treatment outcomes. However, the official did not clarify whether subsequent transport would be to the U.S. or Europe, which has previously accepted American citizens for isolation and treatment. Nor was there information on whether U.S. citizens would be allowed to return if they did not wish to go to Kenya.
The United States has currently banned green-card holders who have traveled in the DRC, Uganda, and South Sudan from returning, and also prohibits entry for anyone who has visited those three countries.
The decision has drawn sharp criticism from public health experts. Jennifer Nuzzo, an epidemiologist and director of the Pandemic Center at Brown University's School of Public Health, called it shocking to prevent American citizens from returning to receive world-class care at taxpayer-funded biocontainment facilities. She worries that without a safe, timely isolation plan for those infected, these facilities could amplify virus spread. The prospect of being unable to return home for effective care could discourage people from reporting exposure, leading to undetected cases and further transmission.
Jeremy Konyndyk, president of Refugees International and former head of USAID's Covid-19 task force and Ebola response during 2014-2015, stressed that American health workers involved in previous outbreaks knew they could go home for the world's best care if they fell ill. Without that assurance and the prospect of indefinite separation from family, U.S. experts would be far less willing to volunteer. He called this a message to any American health worker that if they get sick, they cannot come home, which eliminates the incentive to participate. During the 2014 outbreak, the U.S. resisted imposing travel bans because it knew that would be counterproductive to ending the epidemic.
Experts also note that the risk during transport is extremely low for asymptomatic individuals, and the U.S. has extensive experience in evacuating people exposed to or testing positive for Ebola or other infectious pathogens.
