Proposed US Ebola facility in Kenya sparks backlash at home and abroad

By Larry Madowo, Lauren Kent, Nimi Princewill, CNN

Nairobi (CNN) — The plan to launch this week a health facility in Kenya for Americans who may have been exposed to the Ebola virus has received widespread criticism – from both Kenyan doctors and US officials working at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The main doctors’ union in Kenya and the Law Society of Kenya told CNN they oppose the plan, saying it risks importing Ebola into the East African nation, which has no cases as of Thursday.

Meanwhile in the United States, CDC officials strongly recommended against the plan to send Americans to Kenya, with the agency’s acting director, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, also reportedly advising against it, according to a CDC source working on the Ebola response operations.

Some officers at the agency “are furious about it” and believe the plan “will make recruiting and staffing for Ebola response activities harder,” the CDC source told CNN.

Although the CDC source noted that there are “very proficient colleagues in Kenya,” they also said “it’s hard to imagine the standard of care will be able to meet that of the treatment facilities that have been developed at great cost over many years in the US. Let alone the aspects of wanting to be repatriated and closer to family, other supportive services, etc.”

CNN has reached out to the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which oversees the CDC, for comment.

A Trump administration official previously told CNN that “treatment capabilities at the facility are expected to be able to care for the full spectrum of Ebola Virus Disease, including critical care needs, though each case will be evaluated for forward transport for more advanced care as appropriate in order to maximize patient outcomes.”

The outbreak, which is centered in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), is believed to have caused at least 238 deaths and more than 1,000 suspected infections so far, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Driven by the Bundibugyo strain, a rare form of Ebola for which there is no approved vaccine or treatment, the virus has also crossed into neighboring Uganda, which has reported at least seven cases associated with the outbreak, including one death.

Doctors demand transparency on Ebola facility deal

A senior Trump administration official said Thursday that the US has received approval from the Kenyan government for isolation and quarantine units on its soil. However, the Kenyan government has yet to officially comment on the deal.

A 50-bed quarantine unit will be operational as of Friday, another senior administration official said. It will be located on the Laikipia Airbase, about 125 miles north of Nairobi. As of Thursday, no patients are set to go to the unit.

Additional isolation and biocontainment units will be available at the site later; if someone develops symptoms or tests positive, they will be evacuated to other facilities, a senior official said. The CDC and Department of State are working to determine where in Europe those facilities will be located.

Care will be provided by officers of the Commissioned Corps of the US Public Health Service, who have already departed for Kenya. Around 30 officers received three days of training this week, a senior official said and more will be trained this weekend. Although there are no approved medications specifically for the Bundibugyo virus, antibody treatments and antivirals including Remdesivir will be available.

Kenya’s secretary of public health, Mary Muthoni Muriuki, said on Thursday that the government is having conversations with partners, including the US, and insisted that it’s taking actions to “ensure that every Kenyan is very, very safe.”

Dr. Davji Bhimji Atellah, secretary-general of the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPDU), told CNN: “We need total transparency from the Kenyan government on why they agreed to take up this offer.”

He also questioned why the Trump administration wants to set up an isolation facility specifically for Americans, when Kenya has a “longstanding gap” in its chronically under-funded healthcare system.

“What makes the US choose Kenya when the epicentre of the outbreak is in (the Democratic Republic of) Congo?” asked the leader of the union, which represents more than 10,000 doctors in public and private hospitals.

The Kenyan and US governments recently renegotiated the amount of aid funding for Kenyan health efforts, as part of the new US global health strategy. Under the terms of their bilateral agreement signed in December, Kenya will see a 21% reduction in its global health aid funding from the US over the next five years, according to an analysis from KFF, a nonprofit health policy research organization.

The new agreement stipulates that the US will provide $1.6 billion to Kenya between 2026 and 2030, with Kenya picking up more of the tab for its own health system, according to KFF. The deal represents a reduction in funding of about $423 million over that period compared to the previous US funding levels. The agreement was immediately challenged in Kenya’s High Court, with opponents criticizing it for unfavorable terms.

“We will not sit back and watch Kenya be treated as a containment colony for a lethal pathogen that we did not generate,” Atellah added in the statement criticising the Ebola facility. “If it is too dangerous for America, it is too dangerous for Kenya.”

The Katiba Institute, a civil society group focusing on constitutional matters in Kenya, is challenging the proposed American health facility in court.

The Law Society of Kenya also asked the Kenyan government to reject the facility.

Law Society President Charles Kanjama referred to Marco Rubio’s comments in a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, in which the US secretary of state said “we cannot and will not allow any cases of Ebola to enter” the US.

“If America – a first-world country – is apprehensive about the health and safety of their citizens, we’re asking the Kenyan government to have the same standard as the American government does,” Kanjama told CNN. “This is quite paradoxical, and it is clearly trying to create a double standard for healthcare system and public safety; keeping America safe while leaving Kenyans at risk of infection.”

Kenya’s two largest newspapers – the Daily Nation and the Standard – both led with news of the health facility deal. It has also dominated the debate on Kenyan television, talk shows and radio, as critics expressed disbelief that President William Ruto’s government had agreed to the Ebola facility.

The widespread criticism also made it off the airways and onto the streets, as everyday Kenyans expressed concerns about the deadly virus.

“Please tell the government not to bring those sick Americans here,” a security guard in Nairobi told CNN while frisking people entering an office block. “I come into contact with a lot of people every day in this job. How will I keep myself safe if Ebola comes here?”

Outbreak outpacing the response in eastern DRC

The head of WHO issued a plea Thursday for an urgent ceasefire in the DRC, where fighting is ongoing between government forces and rebel militias. As the result of the persistent violence, the region is contending with a mass displacement crisis, in addition to other health issues including malaria, measles and malnutrition.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced that he is traveling to the central African nation to support frontline health workers.

Tedros has warned that the outbreak in Ituri Province — the epicenter of the crisis — is “outpacing the response” to contain it, calling the situation a “catastrophic collision of disease and conflict.”

“We cannot do this work if those who are trying to help are prevented from doing so or put in danger,” he wrote in a letter released Thursday. “I am making a direct appeal to all warring parties in this region: please, declare a ceasefire. Even briefly. Even just enough to let health workers through… A ceasefire, even a temporary one, would save lives.”

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CNN’s Jamie Gumbrecht contributed to this report.