The Trump administration will send any Americans who contract Ebola to European hospitals rather than bring them home, senior officials announced Thursday, marking the latest escalation in efforts to prevent infected patients from entering the country.
The decision reflects a broader strategy that includes blocking noncitizens who have traveled to Congo, Uganda, or South Sudan in the past three weeks and establishing a quarantine facility in Kenya for exposure cases. The move comes as the Bundibugyo strain spreads rapidly in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, with 1,077 confirmed cases and 246 deaths reported by the World Health Organization.
Officials cited transport efficiency as the rationale. "It is much better to be able to transport them to a facility that takes a shorter transport time, as opposed to flying them back all the way to the United States," a senior official explained. The administration has not yet identified which European countries will accept the patients, though the CDC and State Department are coordinating to locate suitable facilities.
One American has already been flown to Germany under this protocol. The surgeon, who had been working at a Congo hospital, is now hospitalized there along with his wife and four children, who are quarantining. A second American doctor is in quarantine in the Czech Republic. Both were among seven Americans evacuated from Congo last week.
The centerpiece of the U.S. response is a quarantine facility opening Friday at Laikipia Air Base in central Kenya, equipped with 50 beds. The facility will be staffed by members of the U.S. Public Health Service, including personnel who handled Ebola cases during the 2014 Liberia outbreak. Officials said the base operates with the knowledge and cooperation of Kenya's government.
The facility is designed to expand with isolation and biocontainment units for anyone who tests positive, but those individuals would not remain in Kenya. Instead, they would be transferred to the yet-to-be-named European locations for treatment.
At a Cabinet meeting Wednesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio delivered a stark statement of intent: "We cannot and will not allow any cases of Ebola to enter the United States." The CDC has enforced this through entry restrictions targeting anyone with recent travel to the outbreak zones.
Officials emphasized that American patients would receive world-class care despite the geographic distance. "We want the absolute best care for American citizens," one senior official said, noting that U.S. doctors have been deployed to both the Kenya facility and the German hospital where the surgeon is being treated. The Bundibugyo strain has no vaccine or approved treatment, making the choice of facility and medical expertise critical.
As of Thursday, officials said they were not aware of additional Americans requiring transport beyond those already evacuated, though the situation remains fluid as the outbreak continues.
Author Sarah Mitchell: "This is hardball public health policy, and it raises uncomfortable questions about whether logistics or politics is driving the bus."
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