Americans traveling in Africa who are diagnosed with or suspected of having Ebola will not be brought back to the U.S. for treatment, according to a new report.
The current plan responding to the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo calls for a facility to be set up in Kenya where Americans could be put in quarantine, according to The Wall Street Journal. The report cited sources it did not name.
The outlet said the facility will target “Americans who are exposed to or at high risk of testing positive for the virus in the region, as well as Americans who test positive.”
Members of the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, a division of the Department of Health and Human Services, have been given notices they are being deployed to Kenya, the report said.
Countries are ramping up measures to contain a fast-growing rare Ebola strain outbreak. Canada imposed a 90-day entry ban on residents from Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda and South Sudan, while the US is deploying public health officers to Kenya https://t.co/g11fN93qKV pic.twitter.com/pTqTo8A3Qk
— Reuters (@Reuters) May 27, 2026
An administration official said the facility would serve Americans “who would need to quickly get out of DRC and quarantine.”
As of Tuesday, the outbreak had at least 930 suspected Ebola cases and 223 deaths in the Congo, as well as seven cases and one suspected death in Uganda.
World Health Organization officials think the virus has been spreading undetected regionally for weeks.
Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the leader of the WHO, said that conflict is hampering efforts to contain the virus, according to the BBC.
The eastern Congo is a “catastrophic collision of disease and conflict,” he said, noting the WHO “cannot build community trust or isolate the sick while bombs are falling.”
The region has been ruled by the military since 2021.
Eastern #DRC now faces a catastrophic collision of disease and conflict with the #Ebola outbreak in Ituri province outpacing the response.
The Ebola Bundibugyo virus has no approved vaccine nor treatment. Stopping this Ebola transmission depends entirely on humanitarian access.… pic.twitter.com/FGnQYIq6CH
— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) May 27, 2026
Tedros said “ongoing clashes are driving mass displacement, pushing exposed contacts into overcrowded camps and severing critical containment corridors,” he said.
“Frontline workers are risking everything, while attacks on health facilities make tracking cases and their contacts nearly impossible,” he said.
Authorities said the Bundibugyo virus, an Ebola variant with no approved medicines or vaccines, is driving the outbreak, according to Newsweek.
Ebola “is severe and often fatal and can be contracted from bodily fluids such as vomit, blood or semen. Symptoms include fever, headache, muscle pain, weakness, diarrhea, vomiting, stomach pain and unexplained bleeding or bruising,” Newsweek reported.
Last week, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that foreign nationals who have been to the Congo, Uganda, or South Sudan will be banned from entering the U.S. for a 30-day period.
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