US lawmakers demand Trump bring Ebola patients home after Court ruling

US President Donald Trump. [AFP]

Democratic members of the US House Foreign Affairs Committee have demanded the Trump administration repatriate Americans exposed to Ebola, after the High Court blocked a US military-built quarantine facility at a Kenyan air base.

The 50-bed unit at the Laikipia Air Base, about 200 kilometres from Nairobi, was built by the US military and intended to serve Americans exposed to the Ebola virus but still asymptomatic.

Nearly three dozen public health officers had been deployed to Kenya to staff the quarantine and isolation units, some of whom served during the 2014 West Africa Ebola outbreak.

Patients who developed symptoms would be transferred to specialised facilities in Europe rather than flown back to the United States.

"Our government has a responsibility to help Americans abroad. The US already has domestic facilities specifically designed to safely care for Ebola patients," the committee said, adding, "The Trump administration should bring Americans home and help them, not outsource that responsibility to a foreign government."

High Court Judge Patricia Nyaundi issued interim conservatory orders on May 28, halting any plans to establish Ebola-related treatment or quarantine facilities in Kenya under arrangements involving foreign governments.

The Katiba Institute filed the restraining application, citing a lack of transparency and public participation and arguing that "constitutional recklessness" had implications for "grave public health."

The Trump administration has said it "cannot and will not allow" any Ebola cases to enter the US, unlike during the 2014-2016 West Africa outbreak when several infected American nationals were treated on US soil.

Democratic lawmakers rejected that rationale, arguing the US had domestic capacity to handle Ebola patients and that care should not be delegated to foreign governments.

The Trump administration had previously dismantled the US Agency for International Development, cut the US off from the World Health Organisation and carried out mass layoffs across domestic and global public health agencies, moves critics say weakened America's ability to respond to outbreaks.

The ruling and the US lawmakers' statement drew sharp reaction from Kenyans on social media. X user @kahumuinfo wrote: "If there's any humanity left in the American system, you'd realise dumping your nationals on Kenyan soil for isolation and treatment is signing a death warrant for citizens where the healthcare system is failing."

@PaulRukaria was blunt: "Kenya is NOT a dumping ground for Americans infected with a lethal virus. Too dangerous for American soil, too dangerous for Kenya."

@fifiey_fiona echoed the sentiment: "It's quite unfair to put our citizens at risk, considering our failing healthcare system and having never reported any Ebola case. Please do us a favour and take them back."

Others raised deeper suspicions. @AgendaKE questioned the rationale entirely, asking: "Why spend billions treating about three or seven Americans with Ebola? Who are these Americans and what were they doing in the DRC?"

@setanindeta linked the plan to a wider pattern, writing: "They are even shooting young people who are protesting against the establishment of a quarantine facility here in Kenya. This is neocolonialism."

The Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists, and Dentists Union (KMPDU) has threatened to initiate industrial action unless the terms of the agreement with the US government were released within 48 hours.

Ebola has claimed nearly 250 lives and sickened more than 1,000 people in the DRC and Uganda.