Aid group says seven Americans quarantining at Kenya Ebola facility after US travel ban

Seven American aid workers, who had been in Congo to combat the Ebola outbreak, are now quarantining at a new isolation facility in Kenya. The move follows the US government's introduction of travel restrictions for citizens returning from Ebola-affected areas.

The US-funded facility, a 50-bed bio-isolation unit on a Kenyan air force base, is intended for asymptomatic Americans exposed to the virus in the Democratic Republic of Congo or Uganda. The US government's policy requires citizens returning from Congo to spend three weeks in a third country before entering the United States. This is the first known instance of individuals quarantining at the facility.

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None of them have any symptoms, but they are being quarantined by the Kenyan government for 21 days.

However, the facility has generated significant opposition within Kenya. A court had previously ordered a halt to its construction, a decision that led to the health minister announcing an immediate stop to work. Despite this, construction reportedly continued, according to US officials and satellite imagery. Many Kenyans express anger over what they perceive as the US offloading a health risk onto their country.

Franklin Graham, president and CEO of Samaritan's Purse, the US charity employing the workers, confirmed their presence at the facility. "None of them have any symptoms, but they are being quarantined by the Kenyan government for 21 days," Graham told Reuters. A US State Department official added that the group had "voluntarily moved to the Kenya facility for precautionary monitoring and isolation" and that Kenyan authorities had authorized their movement under US Public Health Service clinician observation. The official stressed the decision was taken "strictly out of an abundance of caution."

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voluntarily moved to the Kenya facility for precautionary monitoring and isolation. Kenyan authorities have authorized their movement into the facility under the observation of the US Public Health Service clinicians. The decision was taken strictly out of an abundance of caution.