Kenyan Court Blocks Plan for Ebola Quarantine Center

A Kenyan court on Friday temporarily blocked the Kenyan government from establishing or operating any Ebola exposure, quarantine, isolation, or treatment facility under any agreement with the United States or any other foreign government or agency. The court also barred the government from allowing anyone infected with or exposed to Ebola into the country pending the outcome of the case.

The case was filed by the Katiba Institute.

A 50-bed Ebola quarantine center had been scheduled to open Friday at Laikipia Air Base in Nanyuki, about 125 miles north of Nairobi. The facility would have been operated by members of the U.S. Public Health Service. Elected leaders in Laikipia County had opposed the center and asked in a joint statement why the site was chosen.

The Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists, and Dentists Union had also opposed the plan and threatened to strike.

U.S. Position and Regional Outbreak U.S.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Thursday that the United States would not allow any cases of Ebola to enter the country. U.S. public health officials had criticized the plan to quarantine Americans in Kenya rather than repatriating them. The World Health Organization reported Friday that there were 906 suspected Ebola cases and 223 suspected deaths in the Democratic Republic of the Congo as of Wednesday, along with 125 confirmed cases in the DRC and 9 in Uganda.

Ebola is transmitted to people from wild animals and spreads between humans through direct contact with blood or bodily fluids of infected people.