The US is constructing a 50-bed Ebola quarantine and treatment facility at Laikipia airbase in Kenya exclusively for Americans exposed to the virus, prompting criticism from former top health officials and the CDC workers' union. The Kenyan high court initially blocked the plan, but both governments proceeded regardless, with the first American responders arriving at the site on Saturday. A group of former senior CDC leaders, including Daniel Jernigan, who led the agency's Ebola response from 2014 to 2015, expressed serious ethical, clinical and operational concerns in a letter to Congress, stating the plan contradicts long-standing principles guiding past US outbreak responses. The union representing CDC employees, AFGE Local 2883, accused the Trump administration of abandoning frontline workers, calling the move a break from precedent set by previous administrations. Yolanda Jacobs, the union's president, said the policy leaves American responders without clear guarantees for their care. Patients at the Kenya facility would receive basic medical support, but those needing advanced treatment would be transferred to unidentified hospitals in Europe. The White House has not clarified whether the facility would be available to non-Americans or whether all US personnel must quarantine, regardless of exposure level. It also has not confirmed if Americans could opt to return home instead. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated last week that no Ebola cases would be permitted to enter the United States. During the 2014 West Africa outbreak, infected American health workers were safely treated in US biocontainment units in Atlanta, Bethesda, Omaha and New York without spreading the virus. Ronald Nahass, president of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, questioned the logic of isolating Americans abroad when the US has highly trained staff and advanced facilities capable of managing such cases domestically.
The Trump administration is building an American-only Ebola facility in Kenya while blocking infected citizens from returning home, reversing its 2014 policy of treating them in US biocontainment units. It previously evacuated American health workers to hospitals in Atlanta, Bethesda, Omaha and New York during the West Africa outbreak. The current plan isolates US responders abroad despite existing domestic capacity. This shift abandons the principle that those serving in global health crises should be protected at home.
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