Ebola nurse to sue over ‘inhumane’ quarantine A nurse who was quarantined under tough new rules which impose mandatory quarantine on health workers returning from treating ebola patients has threatened to sue over her “inhumane” treatment. Kaci Hickox was forced into quarantine in a New Jersey hospital after returning from Sierra Leone, but will challenge the policy in court. The nurse, who has tested negative for ebola, described being interrogated “like a criminal” under the strict rules introduced in New Jersey, New York and Illinois. She was left wearing paper scrubs in a tent outside the main hospital which was equipped with a bed, shower and a non-flushing chemical toilet for a planned 21-day quarantine which the nurse said violated her human rights. She has shown no symptoms and has tested negative for the disease. The hospital said on Sunday that Ms Hickox had now been given access to a computer and her phone, and had been allowed to get magazines and takeway food, though she apparently had not been permitted to speak to her lawyer in person. It came as Barack Obama’s administration added pressure on officials to soften their stance as they backed experts who have raised concerns about the measures. “We have let the governors of New York, New Jersey, and other states know that we have concerns with the unintended consequences of policies not grounded in science may have on efforts to combat Ebola at its source in West Africa,” the White House said. Some experts have warned that the rules could deter medics from volunteering and might even increase the risk of outbreaks on US soil by encouraging arrivals to try to bypass official checks. Andrew Cuomo, the governor of New York, on Sunday said that people arriving from afflicted countries without symptoms would be allowed to spend their quarantine period at home and would be compensated for lost income. “These people are extraordinary for their valour and their courage and their compassion,” he said. “Anything we can do to encourage it, we want to do.” New Jersey similarly stressed said that state residents would be quarantined at home and non-residents would be transported to their homes if feasible. While the announcement did not amount to a change in policy, Mr Cuomo appeared to be backtracking from bullish comments on Friday when he had first announced the new rules together with the New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. Mandatory quarantine rules for health workers returning from west Africa were announced after a volunteer from Doctors Without Borders tested positive three days after returning to New York. Dr Craig Spencer had dined on meatballs in the West Village and had been in a bowling alley and bar in Brooklyn, before reporting a fever on Thursday morning and being taken to Bellevue hospital. While the US public health institute advocates self-monitoring for returning health workers, Governor Cuomo had said it was “too serious” to rely on voluntary measures amid concern that people who had submitted to self-quarantine at home had not followed the requirements stringently enough. The World Health Organisation says ebola has now infected more than 10,000 in west Africa, including a two-year-old girl who died on Friday in the first case in Mali. She had travelled 600 miles by bus from Guinea. Bill de Blasio, the mayor of New York had earlier admitted that Ms Hickox had been treated with “disrespect”, adding “We owe her better than that.” Samantha Power, the US envoy to the United Nations, had also warned that the new quarantine policies were “haphazard and not well thought out.” “We cannot take measures here that are going to impact our ability to flood the zone” with health workers, said Ms Power, as she began a tour of West African nations struggling with the disease. “We have to find the right balance between addressing the legitimate fears that people have and encouraging and incentivizing these heroes.”
Posted on: Mon, 27 Oct 2014 09:13:34 +0000
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