U.S. citizens in Africa affected by the Ebola outbreak will be able to quarantine in a U.S.-run facility in Kenya as of Friday, according to senior Trump administration officials.
The 50-bed quarantine facility for Americans exposed to Ebola will be staffed by trained medical staff from the Commissioned Corps of the U.S. Public Health Service, the office of uniformed healthcare workers within the Department of Health and Human Services.
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The facility will also have 12 patient isolation beds and four biocontainment beds for patients who develop symptoms to receive treatment, including monoclonal antibodies as needed, according to administration officials.
More than 230 people in the Congo have died from the most recent outbreak of the disease, which has also spread to neighboring Uganda.
Ebola is highly contagious and spreads easily through direct contact with bodily fluids of infected patients. The current outbreak is of the rare Bundibugyo Ebolavirus strain, which does not have a vaccine approved by the Food and Drug Administration.
The number of U.S. citizens in Africa exposed to the disease is unclear.
Efforts to set up the facility in Kenya reported by the Wall Street Journal have sparked backlash from former federal public health officials who managed the U.S. response to prior Ebola outbreaks.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said during a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday that the Trump administration “cannot and will not allow any cases of Ebola to enter the United States,” sparking concerns about the quality of care U.S. citizens will receive if exposed to the disease or if they develop symptoms.
Senior administration officials told reporters the Kenya facility was established due to logistical difficulties of evacuating U.S. citizens from remote regions of the Congo, as well as the risk of patients’ conditions worsening during the transport time back to the U.S.
Officials also said the first cadre of uniformed Public Health Service personnel was en route to Kenya as of Thursday afternoon and that another would be ready to deploy next week.
The Public Health Service personnel were trained by subject-matter experts and virologists who have worked in previous Ebola outbreaks, including at the U.S.-led containment facility in Liberia during the 2014-2015 Ebola outbreak.
Trump administration officials also suggested that exposed or symptomatic U.S. citizens might also be transferred to tertiary centers if necessary, though they did not specify the countries involved in bilateral agreements with the U.S. in this matter.
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When asked whether citizens could be transported back to the U.S., one official said treatment plans would be “individualized to each citizen,” including possible repatriation.
“We’re going to be ready to take care of our citizens as needed,” the official said.
