U.S. citizens in Africa affected by the Ebola outbreak will be able to quarantine in a U.S.-run facility in Kenya as of Friday, according to senior Trump administration officials.The 50-bed quarantine facility for Americans exposed to Ebola will be staffed by trained medical staff from the Commissioned Corps of the U.S. Public Health Service, the office of uniformed healthcare workers within the Department of Health and Human Services.The facility will also have 12 patient isolation beds and four biocontainment beds for patients who develop symptoms to receive treatment, including monoclonal antibodies as needed, according to administration officials.
More than 230 people in the Congo have died from the most recent outbreak of the disease, which has also spread to neighboring Uganda.
Ebola is highly contagious and spreads easily through direct contact with bodily fluids of infected patients. The current outbreak is of the rare Bundibugyo Ebolavirus strain, which does not have a vaccine approved by the Food and Drug Administration.
The number of U.S. citizens in Africa exposed to the disease is unclear.
Efforts to set up the facility in Kenya reported by the Wall Street Journal have sparked backlash from former federal public health officials who managed the U.S. response to prior Ebola outbreaks.
