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THE NURSE WHO was quarantined at a New Jersey hospital because she had contact with Ebola patients in West Africa criticised the way her case has been handled, raising concerns from humanitarian and human rights groups over unclear policies for the newly launched quarantine program.
Kaci Hickox, the first traveler quarantined under Ebola watches in New Jersey and New York, wrote the first-person account for the Dallas Morning News, which was posted on the paper’s website yesterday.
Her preliminary tests for Ebola came back negative.
This is not a situation I would wish on anyone, and I am scared for those who will follow me,” Hickox wrote of her quarantine. “I am scared about how health care workers will be treated at airports when they declare that they have been fighting Ebola in West Africa. I am scared that, like me, they will arrive and see a frenzy of disorganization, fear and, most frightening, quarantine. … The U.S. must treat returning health care workers with dignity and humanity.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on Friday imposed a mandatory quarantine of 21 days — the incubation period of the deadly virus — on travelers who have had contact with Ebola patients in the countries ravaged by Ebola — Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone. A similar measure was announced in Illinois, where officials say such travelers could be quarantined at home.
Sharp criticism
The hazy details of how such quarantines will be handled are drawing sharp criticism as infectious disease experts say enforcement logistics are up in the air. Health officials in all three states with quarantine policies did not return messages from The Associated Press seeking details about enforcement.
Cuomo acknowledged yesteray that the policy might be hard to enforce, according to the New York Daily News.
The governor said officials had never considered whether people refusing to go along with the order could face prosecution or arrest, adding “It’s nothing that we’ve discussed, no,” the newspaper said.
In her essay, Hickox described being stopped at Newark Liberty International and questioned over several hours after touching down Friday. She said none of those who questioned her would explain what was going on or what would happen to her.
Hickox is a nurse who had been working with Doctors Without Borders in Sierra Leone. Officials said she was taken to a hospital after developing a fever, but Hickox said she was merely flushed because she was upset by the process.
Lack of clarity
Doctors Without Borders executive director Sophie Delaunay complained Saturday about the “notable lack of clarity” from state officials about the quarantine policies, and an American Civil Liberties Union official in New Jersey said the state must provide more information on how it determined that mandatory quarantines were necessary.
“Coercive measures like mandatory quarantine of people exhibiting no symptoms of Ebola and when not medically necessary raise serious constitutional concerns about the state abusing its powers,” said Udi Ofer, executive director of the ACLU of New Jersey.
Doctors Without Borders said Hickox has not been issued an order of quarantine specifying how long she must be isolated and is being kept in an unheated tent. It urged the “fair and reasonable treatment” of health workers fighting the Ebola outbreak.
“We are attempting to clarify the details of the protocols with each state’s departments of health to gain a full understanding of their requirements and implications,” Delaunay said in a statement.
Has sympathy
Christie, campaigning Saturday in Iowa for a fellow Republican, said he sympathises for Hickox but said he has to do what he can to ensure public health safety.
“My heart goes out to her,” the governor said, while also noting that state and local health officials would make sure quarantine rules are enforced. He said the New Jersey State Police won’t be involved.
Health officials said preliminary tests for Ebola came back negative for Hickox but Newark University Hospital would not say if she would be released for the balance of the quarantine period or remain in the hospital.
In the very early stages of Ebola, patients may still test negative because the virus has not yet reached detectable levels in the blood. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says it may take up to three days after the onset of symptoms for the virus to reach detectable levels in some patients, prompting repeat testing in some cases.
Hickox’s mother, Karen Hickox, said Saturday her daughter probably wasn’t expecting to be quarantined upon her return to the United States, but is dealing with it.
“I spoke with her (Friday and Saturday),” she said. “She was more frustrated (Friday) but there were some tears (Saturday) … If you knew her, she’s a very compassionate person but she doesn’t usually get emotional.”
Quarantine
The quarantine measures were announced after a New York physician, Craig Spencer, working for Doctors Without Borders returned from Guinea was admitted to Manhattan’s Bellevue Hospital Center earlier this week to be treated for Ebola.
A senior White House official said Saturday that how to treat health care workers returning from the affected West African countries continues to be discussed at meetings on Ebola as the administration continues to take a “careful look” at its policies.
Dr. Irwin Redlener, a Columbia University professor and director of the New York-based National Center for Disaster Preparedness, said the logistics of the states’ new quarantine policy are “a problem.”
“The challenge now is how you translate this quarantine plan to operational protocol,” Redlener said.
He warned that quarantines might discourage doctors and nurses from going to West Africa to help, an issue raised by aid groups and Dr. Rick Sacra, one of the American health care workers successfully treated for Ebola contracted while he worked in Liberia.
“Until Ebola is under control in Africa, we’re never going to see the end of such cases coming to the United States,” Redlener said.
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Right or wrong, the decision to quarantine returning citizens is vital to protect others.
The decision to quarantine is the right one but I agree it needs to be handled with sensitivity and compassion, not US officialdom’s strongest point.
No it’s not.
The decision to quarantine people is purely political.
Ebola is difficult to spread. They even managed to stop it in Nigeria!! Nigeria – it’s not like they have space suits and magic isolation facilities.
The only people in the US or Europe to catch it have been nurses involved in handling the bodily wastes of someone acutely ill.
Treating medical workers like animals, putting them in quarantine, will only reduce the medical aid available to west Africa. The less medical aid there – the more likely it is to spread.
Emergency Support Function (ESF) #8: comes to mind.
http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/frp/frpesf8.htm
# FEMA CAMPS.
This borders on the insane.
The virus can be detected 3 days after infection, but doesn’t become transmittable until about 21 days after infection.
Simple f*cking maths… Just do a test at airport and mandatory tests every few days for two weeks…
Doing a 21 day quarantine when there is a simple fool proof test they can do instead of madness and will waste millions. This is about playing politics with fear nothing else.
Americans in past year killed by…
Ebola: 1.
ISIS: 2.
Gun violence: 31,000.
Flu/Pneumonia: 54,000.
Cancer: 575,000.
Heart disease: 600,000.
But Hollywood (Outbreak and its follow ups) and the mainstream media has been purring the fear of God in the populations about Ebola.
# Predictive Programming.
Exactly, sitting here with a real ilness that might really take my life, it’s incredibly frustrating to watch people work themselves into hysterics over something they will never encounter that, on a bad day, no more than 5 Irish people will get.
They’re outraged at no ebola checks at the airports, which our own experts tell us would be pointless.
Theres no outrage that cancer paitents whos treatment side effects include teeth falling out are told that dental treatment is ”cosmetic” and not covered on the medical card.
There is no outrage that PUBLIC cancer paitents are charged per treatment fees for some types of treatment as well as a day charge every time they walk into the hospital.
There is no outrage that 1000s of cancer paitents have lost the medical card all togther.
…no no just outrage over this thing that our of a combined US-EU population of nearly 1b people has killed less than 20.
The only quarantine that would save lives in America would be a quarantine from McDonalds. Obesity kills hundreds of thousands there, Ebola one.
McDonalds and all these other junk food outlets assist in the spread of Ebola by destroying the body with GMO and toxic Chemicals.
People should start thinking now a more nutritious diet to build up the bodies immune system..
Nothing to do with GMO or chemicals. Simply a fact of eating too much.
Ebola presents a different type of threat than McDonalds, gun violence.
It needs to involve quarantine etc (in an organised way)
Surely even dangerously stupid people see that…
The quarantine procedures that one can foresee would no doubt be doors kicked down, swat teams and martial law.
no doubt that is a part of the plan.
Ferg do you think they shout wait until more die to step up security
No, it’s not about that. Of course they need to make sure it’s dealt with properly. However, America thrives on fear and love to point the finger at external situations/other countries rather than at themselves and the death and destruction their own culture reaps upon itself.
This won’t help prevent the spread of Ebola. Medical professionals returning from west Africa have a protocol to follow when they return. If they have a fever – they go to a dedicated centre. They are not infectious before this.
This quarantine is purely political, driven by the coming US elections, and not by medical knowledge.
bang on David.
We can see how useful it’s going to be by comparing it to past outbreaks.
What many on this website don’t seem to understand is that civil defense and disaster management experts do this stuff for a full time job, we think it , breathe it, live it every day. we spend our time thinking up various permutations of various scenarios that playing out what kind of responce would work best, picking out errors in that etc etc
Do you know how many infected people they caught through airport screening for H1N1 and other similar conditions in the 20th century? out of all of them? ZERO…and they stopped half a million people for H1N1 alone, full body scanners and there was not ONE person.
The word quarantine comes from Venice partly when they would make ships wait x time to make sure nobody was infected…the plague still ravaged Venice anyway. This is not an effective technique for stopping an epidemic, and it’s draining resources away from things that DO work. Do you really wanna p1ss money away on something we know to be futile?
This woman volunteered to go to an ebola infected region and TREAT ebola patients. Of course there’s a possibility she could get it! It’s better to quarantine her than risk her spreading a disease around AFTER she develops symptoms! Common sense people! If you want to go to these ebola infested regions then have more respect for the people back home when you come back potentially infected! These people are simply selfish. They want to be ebols heros in the field but have no problem risking the lives around them when they return! Mandatory quarantine should be required!
I love how people that support her quarantine get labeled as right wing fear mongering republicans. Sorry but I’m not any of them. I just prefer my family and I not to be exposed to some horrible disease so some nurse can have a night out on the town. She chose to go there. I didn’t. Had respect for her until she hired some lawyer. Hope the doctor is doing better.
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