U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio boards his plane at Zvartnots International Airport in Yerevan, Armenia, Tuesday. 2026. Reuters-Yonhap
WASHINGTON — The United States said on Wednesday it must prevent any cases of Ebola from entering the country from the Democratic Republic of Congo, where an outbreak has already caused a suspected 220 deaths and 900 cases. The World Health Organization has declared the outbreak of the rare Bundibugyo strain of Ebola the third-largest such outbreak on record, and a public health emergency of international concern.
"We cannot and will not allow any cases of Ebola to enter the United States," Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Wednesday at President Donald Trump's cabinet meeting. The United States is in talks with Kenya over opening a facility there to quarantine U.S. citizens who are exposed, two U.S. officials told Reuters on Wednesday. Kenya's government has not yet approved the plan. In the 2014 Ebola outbreak, U.S. citizens returned to and were treated in the U.S.
Last week, a U.S. citizen who was treating patients in the DRC as a medical missionary was confirmed to have contracted Ebola and was moved to Germany for treatment along with five others who were exposed. A seventh person was taken to the Czech Republic. The Washington Post, citing five people familiar with the U.S. Ebola response, reported last week that the White House resisted allowing the medical missionary patient to return to the United States, delaying his evacuation and care.
