President Donald Trump’s administration is planning to send Americans who are exposed to Ebola while abroad to a new facility in Kenya instead of flying them to the United States – a move one critic has called “a moral abdication of care” for the country’s citizens.
The quarantine and treatment centre being set up by the Departments of Defense, State and Health and Human Services will be designed for Ebola patients who need to get out of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and receive care quickly, said an administration official, who insisted on anonymity to share the Republican administration’s plans. The person said the plan would help patients avoid an hour-long medical evacuation to the U.S.
It was unclear where in Kenya the new facility will be built or whether the Kenyan government has signed off on the plan.
The official said the facility will be able to care for the full spectrum of Ebola, a rare but severe disease that is often fatal in people. But the official said people may be transported elsewhere for more advanced care as appropriate.
Kenya’s health minister confirmed officials there were talking with the U.S. about “preparedness and response mechanisms for Ebola” but didn’t address whether the country would establish a treatment facility for Americans.
For decades, medical experts have suggested moving patients suffering from Ebola and similar illnesses as little as possible in case their condition worsens, said Dr. Ali Khan, the public health college dean at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. But, he added, the quality of care must be equivalent to what someone would receive in American facilities.
“You’ve got to make sure the patient gets the best quality care, and you need to ensure excellent infection control,” said Khan, who earlier in his career led international responses to Ebola and other outbreaks for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Dr. Craig Spencer, a public health professor and emergency medicine doctor at Brown University who survived Ebola in 2014, said he doesn’t expect the facility in Kenya to provide the same quality of care that dedicated facilities in the United States do. He said refusing to consider bringing American Ebola patients home for treatment is “a moral abdication of what this country owes its own.”
An earlier outbreak
During a massive Ebola outbreak in west Africa in 2014 and 2015, more than a half dozen infected Americans were brought back to the United States. That experience prompted the establishment of a U.S. network of quarantine and isolation facilities across the country.
But during that earlier outbreak, Trump, then a businessman and reality TV star, repeatedly criticized then-President Barack Obama, a Democrat, for bringing infected Americans home for care.
“The U.S. cannot allow EBOLA infected people back. People that go to far away places to help out are great – but must suffer the consequences!” he wrote in a 2014 tweet.
He also suggested a plan similar to the one described by the administration official: “Treat them, at the highest level, over there,” Trump wrote in July 2014.
During a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the State Department and other agencies were working “very, very hard to contain this crisis to the countries where it’s currently located, particularly the Democratic Republic of the Congo.”
“We cannot and will not allow any cases of Ebola to enter the United States,” he said.
Earlier this month, an American doctor working in Congo tested positive for Ebola and was sent to Germany for medical care. Another American medical missionary, Dr. Patrick LaRochelle, was transported to the Czech Republic for isolation after he was exposed to Ebola, though he did not have any symptoms, according to the missionary organization.
The number of suspected Ebola cases in eastern Congo is nearing 1,000, with at least 220 suspected deaths. Congo’s health ministry on Tuesday said 101 cases have been confirmed and it’s looking into more than 3,000 possible contacts.
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