By Humphrey Malalo
NAIROBI, May 29 (Reuters) – A Kenyan court has ordered the temporary suspension of a plan for the United States to set up an Ebola quarantine facility in the country after a lawsuit argued the site could endanger public health.
Senior U.S. officials said the 50-bed unit at an air force base in central Kenya would serve Americans who have been exposed to the virus but are still asymptomatic and would become operational on Friday.
Patients who develop symptoms would be sent for care in other countries outside the U.S., the officials said.
The plan to bring in Americans exposed to the outbreak in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda has drawn sharp opposition among many Kenyans since it came to light earlier this week. Kenya’s government provided written approval for the plan on Thursday but has not directly addressed it in public comments.
In an order late on Thursday, Kenyan High Court Judge Patricia Nyaundi barred the government from admitting anyone exposed to or infected by Ebola under the planned agreement until a challenge brought by the Katiba Institute legal advocacy group was resolved.
The next hearing will take place on June 2, Nyaundi said.
TRUMP ADMINISTRATION ‘WILL NOT ALLOW’ EBOLA PATIENTS ON US SOIL
U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration has said it “cannot and will not allow” any cases of Ebola to enter the country, unlike during the 2014 to 2016 Ebola outbreak in West Africa when several infected U.S. nationals were treated on U.S. soil.
The planned facility in Kenya is due to be staffed by members of the U.S. Public Health Service, a uniformed branch of the Department of Health and Human Services. More than 30 trained in Washington for three days and left for Kenya on Wednesday night, U.S. officials said.
Kenya has pushed for the facility to be open to all nationalities, not just U.S. citizens, but it is not clear if that will be the case. The U.S. State Department said on Thursday it would commit $13.5 million toward Kenya’s Ebola preparedness efforts.
Since the outbreak was confirmed in mid-May, there have been more than 1,000 suspected and confirmed cases, including 246 deaths, according to the World Health Organization.
Health experts have warned that the real number of cases and deaths is likely to be much higher because of the late detection of the outbreak and difficulties tracing the contacts of suspected cases in eastern DRC, where there is widespread armed conflict.
QUARANTINE PLAN CRITICISED IN KENYA
The Katiba Institute said in its lawsuit that the quarantine plan “raises grave constitutional concerns regarding the rights to life, health, fair administrative action, public participation, and parliamentary oversight”.
Kenya’s main medical union also threatened on Thursday to initiate industrial action unless the terms of the agreement with the U.S. government were released within 48 hours.
Some U.S. health experts, meanwhile, have criticised the plan, saying it could discourage Americans from joining the Ebola response.
The Trump administration has said the plan will allow patients to more quickly access care and will protect Americans at home.
Last week, a U.S. citizen who was treating patients in the DRC as a medical missionary was confirmed to have contracted Ebola and moved to Germany for treatment along with five others who were exposed. A seventh person was taken to the Czech Republic.
(Reporting by Humphrey Malalo; Writing by George Obulutsa and Aaron Ross; Editing by Ros Russell and Hugh Lawson)
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