The U.S. plans to try to keep Ebola out by keeping citizens who were potentially exposed in Kenya. This has some in Kenya frustrated and others worried it will deter aid workers from helping.
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The Trump administration says it will not allow Americans who have been exposed to Ebola to return to the U.S. for treatment. There are now nearly 1,200 suspected cases and at least 220 deaths in the outbreak that began in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Hospitals and aid groups in the country are struggling to contain the outbreak. NPR global health correspondent Fatma Tanis reports.
FATMA TANIS, BYLINE: Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke on Wednesday at a White House Cabinet meeting.
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MARCO RUBIO: We cannot and will not allow any cases of Ebola to enter in the United States.
TANIS: Instead, Americans who have been exposed to the virus abroad will be sent to facilities in Kenya for isolation and treatment. Today, senior administration officials outlined a two-phase plan. They say a 50-bed quarantine facility is being set up at an airbase in Kenya for Americans with no symptoms. And for Americans who test positive, the U.S. is working on creating biocontainment units, also in Kenya, where people will have access to supportive treatments for Ebola, such as replacing loss of fluids and pain management. The care will be provided by U.S. public health service staff. Officials said people with more severe cases will be evacuated to more specialized care centers likely in Europe.
The plan is a change from how the U.S. treated previous Ebola outbreaks where it played an international leadership role in the response and allowed Americans to be monitored and treated in the U.S. Debra Houry is the former chief medical officer for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She says this new approach is a waste of resources when the U.S. has world-class centers that can treat Ebola.
DEBRA HOURY: If I were American citizen and contracted Ebola, I certainly would want world-class care in one of these hospitals. When we have the resources and the talent in the United States, we should use it for, you know, people that need this treatment.
TANIS: Meanwhile, Jean Kaseya, the director general of Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said he was concerned that the U.S. plan would add pressures to Kenya’s own system and resources.
JEAN KASEYA: Kenya is already, for us, a high-risk country. Adding an international quarantine responsibility for foreign nationals could stretch their national capacities.
TANIS: In a statement, Kenya’s medical practitioners union also criticized their own government for allowing Kenya to, quote, “be treated as a containment colony for a lethal pathogen.” Fatma Tanis, NPR News.
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