The ongoing Ebola outbreak in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo has alarmed global public health experts over the ferocity of the spread in the remote and heavily populated region. Since the World Health Organization declared a public health emergency in mid-May, there have been about 1,000 cases and hundreds of deaths from the Bundibugyo species of the virus.
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While global health workers race to contain the epidemic raging in Congo, there’s controversy over the Trump administration’s decision to send Americans exposed to the virus to a quarantine facility in Kenya, which has no cases of Ebola.
The move, a departure from prior Ebola outbreaks, has sparked pushback from a Kenyan court, which ordered a temporary suspension of the plan. It’s unclear how long the suspension will last, though an administration official said Friday that the U.S. is working with the Kenyan government and others to plan for the facility.
White House officials said earlier that if more Americans contract Ebola and need medical care, they’d be sent to Europe rather than flown to the U.S. An American surgeon who caught Ebola while treating patients in the Ituri province was evacuated to Germany for treatment.
The “speed and scale” of the outbreak in Congo is causing worry about potential spread to other areas or countries as conflict and fighting within the region has escalated and because the area is a mining zone with “high levels of population movement,” according to WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
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