NURSE IN QUARANTINE GOES HOME A nurse who threatened to sue after being forced into quarantine when she returned from treating Ebola patients in Africa has been allowed to go home, amid growing confusion among U.S. officials over the best way to handle such cases. Chris Christie, the governor of New Jersey, agreed to let Kaci Hickox leave the hospital isolation ward where she has been held since Friday, despite testing negative for the virus. He insisted that a quarantine order for all medical staff returning from treating Ebola victims in West Africa should remain in place. “I didn’t reverse any decision,” said Mr. Christie. “She hadn’t had any symptoms for 24 hours. And she tested negative for Ebola. So there was no reason to keep her. The reason she was put into the hospital in the first place was because she was running a high fever and was symptomatic.” After Ms. Hickox landed in Newark Friday, a forehead scan showed she had a temperature of 101, which prompted concern because fever is a symptom of Ebola. Ms. Hickox said the reading came because she was flushed and upset. A later reading taken with an oral thermometer recorded a normal temperature, 98.6. Her arrival coincided with the imposition of the strict quarantine measures in New Jersey and neighbouring New York. They were introduced in response to the case of a doctor who tested positive for the disease five days after returning to his home in Manhattan from treating Ebola victims in Guinea. Dr. Craig Spencer remains in serious but stable condition at New York’s Bellevue hospital. Ms. Hickox claimed her human rights had been abused and that she was being treated like a “criminal.” On Sunday she hired a leading human rights lawyer to challenge the quarantine order. Amid a growing outcry over her treatment, with critics suggesting the strict quarantine was counterproductive, New York appeared to loosen its quarantine measures. One of Ms. Hickox’s lawyers, Steven Hyman, said she had been released midday from University Hospital in Newark. A hospital spokeswoman said that two black SUVs with tinted windows were headed to Maine, with the patient as a passenger in one. Ms. Hickox called her treatment inhumane and castigated Mr. Christie for saying she was “obviously ill” when she displayed no symptoms of Ebola. Mr. Christie said he knew that Ms. Hickox was “upset and angry,” but said, “My job is to represent the people of New Jersey.” Mandatory quarantines imposed by New Jersey, New York, Maine and Illinois put the states at odds with the federal government and sparked debate over the legality of the measures. President Barack Obama’s administration is concerned that required quarantines may hurt aid efforts and is preparing new directives, a senior administration official said. Meanwhile, tests were also being carried out on a fiveyear-old boy in New York who developed symptoms consistent with Ebola soon after returning from Guinea. And a dozen American soldiers returning from working in West Africa have been placed in isolation for up to 21 days at a U.S. military base in Italy, as a precaution to prevent the potential spread of Ebola. “Out of an abundance of caution, the army directed a small number of personnel, about a dozen, who recently returned to Italy, to be monitored in a separate location at their home station of Vicenza,” said Colonel Steven Warren, a spokesman for the Pentagon.
Posted on: Tue, 28 Oct 2014 20:19:39 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015