|
 Nurse Kaci Hickox's challenge of Maine's 21-day isolation regime
became a key battle in the dispute between some U.S. states and the
federal government. A handful of states have imposed mandatory
quarantines on health workers returning from three Ebola-ravaged
West African countries while the federal government is wary of
discouraging potential medical volunteers.
While she may travel freely in public, the judge decided that Hickox
must continue direct monitoring of her health, coordinate travel
plans with health officials and report any symptoms.
"I'm happy with the decision the judge made today," Hickox told
reporters via a live video feed from her house in Maine to her
lawyer's New York City office. "I think we are on the right track. I
think now we're discussing as a nation and individual communities
about this disease."
Public concern about the spread of the virus is high in both the
United States and Canada. Canada became the second developed nation
after Australia to bar entry for citizens from the three West
African nations where Ebola is widespread.
Some U.S. politicians have called for a similar travel ban, making
Ebola as much of a political issue as a public health question.
The most deadly outbreak of the disease on record has killed nearly
5,000 people, all but a handful of them in Liberia, Guinea and
Sierra Leone.
Only one person in the United States is currently being treated for
Ebola, a New York doctor, Craig Spencer, who cared for patients in
West Africa.
Maine Governor Paul LePage, a Republican in a tough re-election
battle that culminates in Tuesday's elections, said he was
disappointed that restrictions confining the nurse to her home were
lifted. His office did not respond to questions about whether the
governor would appeal the ruling.
The issue is not yet legally closed.
A hearing is scheduled for Tuesday that will give lawyers for the
state another opportunity to plead their case for more restrictions
on Hickox before Charles LaVerdiere, the chief judge of Maine
District Court.
In Friday's order, LaVerdiere said, "the court is fully aware of the
misconceptions, misinformation, bad science and bad information
being spread from shore to shore in our country with respect to
Ebola.
"The court is fully aware that people are acting out of fear and
that this fear is not entirely rational. However, whether that fear
is rational or not, it is present and it is real," the judge added,
saying Hickox is "not infectious."
On Thursday, the 33-year-old nurse defied the state's quarantine
order and went on a bike ride with her boyfriend. Following the
ruling, state troopers who had been stationed outside Hickox's home
departed.
Speaking to reporters alongside boyfriend Ted Wilbur outside her
two-story clapboard house in the small town of Fort Kent along the
Canadian border, Hickox said she would comply.
"It's just a good day," Hickox said. "I am taking things minute by
minute. Tonight, I am going to try to convince Ted to make me my
favorite Japanese meal. And I think we're going to watch scary
movies since it's Halloween."
Hickox tested negative for Ebola after returning from working for
Doctors Without Borders in Sierra Leone. She also objected when the
state of New Jersey put her into isolation when she arrived at
Newark airport.
She said he hoped to be able to return for more work in West Africa.
"I love working overseas. It's been a large part of my life since
2006," Hickox said.
[to top of second column] |
"I know that Ebola is a scary disease. I have seen it face-to-face
and I know that we are nowhere near winning this battle," she added.
Medical professionals say Ebola is difficult to catch and is spread
through direct contact with bodily fluids from an infected person
and is not transmitted by asymptomatic people. Ebola is not
airborne.
An Oregon resident was hospitalized on Friday for a possible Ebola
infection after traveling to West Africa, according to state health
officials. The woman registered a high temperature and is in
isolation and not a danger to the public, Oregon Health Authority
said.
The woman had not come into known contact with Ebola patients while
in Africa, and had not been quarantined after arriving in Portland
because there was no medical need, Dr. Paul Lewis, a public health
officer in the Portland area, told a news conference.
Public health experts, the United Nations, federal officials and
even President Barack Obama have expressed concern that state
quarantines for returning doctors and nurses could discourage
potential medical volunteers from fighting the outbreak at its
source in West Africa.
In New York on Friday, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations
Samantha Power defended federal guidelines for monitoring healthcare
workers returning from the three Ebola-stricken countries.
Power spoke at a Reuters Newsmaker event hours after returning from
a four-day trip to Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone. She said she
believed current federal guidelines for returning healthcare workers
balanced "the need to respond to the fears that this has generated"
in the United States with the known science on the disease.
The U.S. Department of Defense trod that line carefully on Friday.
According to the Pentagon, civilian U.S. defense employees returning
from Ebola relief work in West Africa must undergo monitoring to
ensure they are free of disease but can choose between following
civil health guidelines or the stricter military regimen, which
requires troops to be isolated for 21 days after returning to their
home station.
Another potential flashpoint was resolved when Louisiana reached an
agreement on Friday to prevent Veolia Environmental Services, which
is in possession of the incinerated personal items of Ebola victim
Thomas Eric Duncan and is holding them in Port Arthur, Texas, from
sending them to a Louisiana landfill.
Louisiana Attorney General Buddy Caldwell had sued and obtained a
temporary restraining order to block the transfer of the material
collected from Duncan and the Dallas apartment where he was staying
to a hazardous waste landfill in Louisiana.
(Additional reporting by Joseph Ax, Jonathan Allen, Courtney
Sherwood, David Ljunggren, Jeffrey Hodgson, Brendan O'Brien, David
Alexander and Jonathan Kaminsky; Writing by Will Dunham and Bill
Rigby; Editing by Jonathan Oatis, Grant McCool and Lisa Shumaker)
[© 2014 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2014 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |
