A Kenyan court has suspended the opening of a quarantine and treatment facility for Americans potentially exposed to a variant of the deadly Ebola virus, after activists and a doctors’ group protested about the use of their country as a “containment colony” and the risk of infection for Kenyans. US officials had earlier said that the 50-bed facility would be operational from Friday at the Laikipia Air Base in central Kenya and that it would be staffed exclusively by American healthcare workers who left for Kenya on Wednesday.
The facility is planned to treat Americans exposed to the Bundibugyo Ebola-causing virus that has been spreading in the nearby Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda, which shares a border with Kenya. Americans could then be evacuated onwards to other facilities in Europe on a case-by-case basis, a US official said.
The outbreak, which began in a remote corner of northeastern DR Congo, has been spreading quickly. There have been over 1,000 suspected cases reported by both DR Congo and Uganda, along with some 230 suspected deaths.