US quarantine order for Americans returning from DRC will hurt Ebola response: aid group

Washington’s new policy that says American citizens returning from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where there is an Ebola outbreak, must spend 21 days in a third country before entering the US. This will hinder the response to the epidemic, says the head of a large American aid group.

Franklin Graham, the CEO of an organisation that operates Ebola treatment centres and deploys what he described as the largest number of American responders in DRC, said he will have to scale back the mission because the quarantine order will complicate the recruitment of health-care workers.

We would have to curtail our work quite a bit. It’s going to hurt us getting the staff that we need.

—  Franklin Graham, the CEO of an organization that operates Ebola treatment centers

“We would have to curtail our work quite a bit,” Graham told Reuters in a phone interview on Wednesday. “It’s going to hurt us getting the staff that we need.”

The outbreak in DRC has resulted in more than 1,900 confirmed Ebola cases and over 700 deaths, according to official data, with all cases linked to the Bundibugyo strain. It is the third-worst outbreak on record, the World Health Organisation has said.

US secretary of state Marco Rubio has pledged to keep Ebola out of the US, establishing strict policies that prevent entry of non-citizens months ago. The US is also building a quarantine centre in Kenya.

On Tuesday Reuters first reported on the new policy from the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention that blocks Americans in DRC from boarding US-bound commercial flights.

The US Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the CDC, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday night.

Temporary workers

Graham’s organisation, Samaritan’s Purse, an Evangelical Christian association that works in various disaster zones around the world, opened Ebola treatment centres in the Congolese town of Bunia and the village of Nyankunde at the epicentre of the outbreak in June.

The facilities have a combined capacity of about 100 beds and have treated more than 270 patients since opening, according to the association. Graham said that about 80 US citizens are deployed there.

It will hurt us. When I say hurt us, it will hurt the level of care that we will be able to provide.

—  Franklin Graham

“It will hurt us,” Graham said. “When I say hurt us, it will hurt the level of care that we will be able to provide.”

The mission deploys temporary health-care workers who take time off from their regular jobs in the US. Graham fears that an additional three weeks away from their workplace could hinder the recruitment of volunteers. It would also increase costs for transferring them to a third country and quarantining there.

“It seems like we’re targeting our health-care workers and treating them maybe a little bit like they are damaged goods,” Graham said. “And these are heroes. These are people that have put their life on the line to save the lives of other people. And these are now experienced Ebola fighters.”

Policy replaces airport screenings

Dr Daniel Jernigan, a former senior CDC official who led the agency’s response during the 2014 to 2015 Ebola outbreak in West Africa, said on Tuesday that using a “do-not-board” policy to prevent US citizens from returning home when they have little risk of Ebola infection is unprecedented.

Americans had been allowed to enter at select airports, where they were screened by officials on their travel history, temperature and symptoms.

No cases linked to the outbreak have been confirmed in the US, and the risk to the American public and travellers remains low, according to the CDC.

The restrictions also apply to some travellers from Uganda and South Sudan. Other travellers from those countries will continue to undergo airport screening. The CDC said exceptions may be granted on a case-by-case basis for humanitarian or law-enforcement reasons.

Reuters