Reuters (6/3, Kannampilly, Lewis) reports that “around 20 flights carrying medical equipment and specialist staff have landed at a base in Kenya where the US government is continuing to build an Ebola quarantine facility despite protests and Kenyan court orders blocking it, according to flight data and officials.” The aircraft have delivered “technical equipment as well as dozens of physicians, engineers, lab experts and construction workers, but no patients, according to a US official.” Meanwhile, the US State Department “said on Wednesday that any US citizen who was at high risk of exposure to Ebola but had not yet shown symptoms could be transported to the facility in Kenya, where they would spend 21 days in quarantine.” Meanwhile, in a separate article, Reuters (6/4, Roy) reports the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) “said on Thursday it is stepping up efforts to help countries across the Americas to strengthen their preparedness for Ebola,” even as “the risk of the disease remains low in the region.” The organization “has activated its incident management system and is working with health ministries to strengthen surveillance, testing and infection control.” It also “is preparing shipments of materials and reagents for molecular detection of Bundibugyo ebolavirus to selected countries with appropriate biosafety capacity, based on risk assessments, it said.”
