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NEW YORK, USA – A US judge ruled Friday, October 31 that a nurse quarantined by her home state after treating Ebola patients could leave home and frequent public places, saying she was not infectious.
The decision from a district judge in the northeastern state of Maine is the latest twist in a bitter row over enforced quarantine of American medics returning from relief work in West Africa.
It reversed a temporary order that prevented her from visiting cinemas and shopping centers, and demanded she keep 3 feet away from others while Judge Charles LaVerdiere examined the case.
Kaci Hickox insists that she is perfectly healthy and has fought efforts of US authorities to keep her in quarantine for 21 days, the incubation period for the virus, since returning home.
Maine went to court to force her to stay at home in the town of Fort Kent. On Thursday, October 30 she went out for a bike ride with her boyfriend, tailed by TV cameras and the police. (READ: US nurse bikes away, despite Ebola quarantine)
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“The state has not met its burden at this time to prove by clear and convincing evidence that limiting respondent’s movements to the degree requested is ‘necessary to protect other individuals,'” LaVerdiere wrote in the ruling.
He said Hickox must continue with direct active monitoring, coordinate her travel with public health authorities and notify them immediately if any symptom for the killer virus appears.
The judge also told Hickox to “demonstrate her full understanding of human nature and the real fear” that exists over the deadly virus, which has so far infected 9 Americans.
“She should guide herself accordingly,” he wrote.
So far the US has treated nine Ebola victims, with one of them – a man who contracted it in Liberia – dying from the virus. Apart from two nurses who had treated the Liberian patient, the rest of the Ebola victims became infected in Africa.
In a press conference reported by CNN, one of Hickox’s lawyers, Steve Hyman, called the ruling “an indication of thoughtfulness versus irrationality.”
Hickox had become “a prisoner because of misconceptions and a whole host of irrational arguments,” he said.
Deterrent for health workers?
Experts say quarantining medical professionals who have shown no symptoms of the disease is counter-productive and could deter other US workers from helping in West Africa’s Ebola crisis.
The White House and public health officials have criticized measures taken by some US states that quarantine medics returning from treating Ebola-infected patients in west Africa.
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie kept Hickox in an isolation tent for 3 days after she flew back from Sierra Leone, before letting her go on Monday, October 27 after she tested negative for Ebola.
She was driven to Maine, which imposed its own quarantine. Her incubation period would formally end November 10. (READ: Quarantined for helping Ebola patients, US nurse slams rules)
“They will not allow me to leave my house and have any interaction with the public, even though I am completely healthy and symptom-free,” Hickox said Wednesday, October 29.
President Barack Obama said at the time that those who volunteer on the front lines in the battle against Ebola should be applauded.
“We need to call them what they are, which is American heroes,” Obama said.
“They deserve our gratitude, and they deserve to be treated with dignity and with respect,” he said, adding that it was in America’s interests to stop Ebola at its source. – Rappler.com
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