A US nurse who returned from treating Ebola patients in Sierra Leone has defied a quarantine order, leaving her house in Maine for a brief bike ride.
Kaci Hickox maintains isolation is unnecessary, as she has no symptoms and has tested negative for Ebola.
Maine officials have vowed to go to court to try to enforce the quarantine.
Nearly 5,000 people have died of the disease in West Africa, but only nine patients have been treated for the virus on US soil.
Ebola, which is only spread through close contact with the bodily fluids of a sick patient, has a 21-day incubation period.
US officials are at odds over whether American healthcare workers who return from treating Ebola patients in West Africa should be forced into quarantine until that period has expired.
New Jersey and other states had put quarantine rules into place after a New York doctor who treated Ebola patients in West Africa came down with the disease.
But the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), America's chief public health agency, merely recommends daily monitoring of returned health workers, rather than enforced isolation.
And President Barack Obama has warned that overly restrictive measures imposed upon returning healthcare workers could discourage them from volunteering in Africa.
"We know that the best way to protect Americans from Ebola is to stop the outbreak at its source," he said on Wednesday.
Ms Hickox returned to the US on Friday, landing at Newark International Airport.
Officials say she had a minor fever, necessitating a quarantine at a Newark, New Jersey, hospital.
Ms Hickox contested the quarantine regimen, ultimately threatening legal action.
After showing no fever or other symptoms for a 24-hour period, she was discharged and brought to her home state of Maine.
"I'm not willing to stand here and let my civil rights be violated when it's not science-based," she told reporters on Wednesday evening.
On Thursday morning, Ms Hickox left her home on a bicycle, followed by police officers who monitored her movements and public interactions.
She returned home shortly after.
Without a court order, the police were barred from detaining her.
Maine officials have sought a judge's permission to order Ms Hickox to undergo a blood test for Ebola, Governor Paul LePage told ABC News.
"This could be resolved today," Mr LePage said. "She has been exposed and she's not co-operative, so force her to take a test. It's so simple."
BBC News
No comments:
Post a Comment