Experts criticise plan for American-only Ebola quarantine centre in Kenya
Source: The Guardian
Experts criticise plan for American-only Ebola quarantine centre in Kenya
Plan departs from policy of bringing CDC staff back to US for treatment and offering support to all health workers
Melody Schreiber
Thu 4 Jun 2026 13.30 BST
Last modified on Fri 5 Jun 2026 02.30 BST
Former top US officials and other experts are urging the Trump administration to abandon plans for an Ebola quarantine and treatment centre in Kenya, as the union for workers with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) calls for Americans exposed to Ebola to be brought home for treatment.
Soon after the US revealed it was setting up a field hospital in Kenya for the Ebola quarantine and treatment of Americans, the Kenyan high court blocked the order – but the Kenyan and US governments moved forward anyway, with the first American responders reportedly landing at the Laikipia airbase on Saturday.
Several former US health leaders, including previous top-level CDC officials, laid out their objections in a letter to Congress. “This policy raises profound clinical, ethical, operational and legal concerns,” they wrote.
Daniel Jernigan, who spent 31 years at the CDC, including overseeing the agency’s Ebola response in 2014-15, before resigning last year, said it was not clear how current officials had arrived at this plan “because it’s against so many ethical underpinnings that we have relied on for all of the past responses”.
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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jun/04/experts-criticise-plan-for-american-only-ebola-quarantine-centre-in-kenya