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Nurse returning from Sierra Leone to be released from NJ quarantine
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A nurse placed in quarantine after returning from Sierra Leone will be released to her home state of Maine, according to a statement released today by the New Jersey Department of Health.
Kaci Hickox, MSN, MPH, was the first person placed in mandatory quarantine after the newly instituted prevention measures announced by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on Oct. 24. Hickox recorded a fever while quarantined at Newark Liberty International Airport, but has since shown no symptoms and tested negative for the Ebola virus.
“After being evaluated in coordination with the CDC and the treating clinicians at University Hospital [in Newark], the patient is being discharged,” the department wrote in the statement. “After consulting with her, she has requested transport to Maine, and that transport will be arranged via a private carrier not via mass transit or commercial aircraft.
“She will remain subject to New Jersey’s mandatory quarantine order while in New Jersey. Health officials in Maine have been notified of her arrangements and will make a determination under their own laws on her treatment when she arrives.”
Along with New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Christie announced the quarantine decision after the news of an asymptomatic physician with the infection traveled throughout New York City before checking himself in for testing. Similar preemptive protocols also were announced by the governor of Illinois.
“Sorry if in any way she was inconvenienced, but inconvenience that could occur from having folks that are symptomatic and ill out amongst the public is a much, much greater concern of mine,” Christie said at a news conference on Oct. 25.
In a statement released the same day, Médecins Sans Frontières wrote that it was “very concerned” about the conditions under which Hickox, who worked with the group in Sierra Leone, was being held. It wrote that she was being held in an isolation tent adjacent to the main hospital building that was not heated and that she was given uncomfortable paper scrubs to wear.
In today’s statement, the NJ Department of Health wrote that the tenting system had been evaluated by the CDC, and that Hickox was provided with computer and cell phone access, reading material and her choice of nourishment.
Médecins Sans Frontières said it also was troubled by the vague quarantine guidelines put in place by the states.
“There is a notable lack of clarity about the new guidelines announced yesterday by state authorities in New York and New Jersey,” Sophie Delaunay, executive director of Médecins Sans Frontières, said in its statement. “We are attempting to clarify the details of the protocols with each state’s department of health to gain a full understanding of their requirements and implications.”
In press releases issued today, the Infectious Diseases Society of America and the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America said they do not support mandatory involuntary quarantine for asymptomatic health care workers returning from outbreak regions. Each argued that the consequences of such actions outweighed the benefits, with the SHEA adding that such procedures could reduce volunteers.
Since Hickox’s isolation, New Jersey, New York and Illinois have announced that mandatory 21-day quarantines could now be carried out at home. Florida and Virginia also have implemented monitoring programs requiring twice-daily check-ins for those returning from Ebola-affected countries until the end of the risk period.
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, who had previously stood at Cuomo’s side on the need for mandatory quarantines, said that Hickox’s treatment was “inappropriate” during a news conference on Oct. 26.
“This hero was treated with disrespect and was not given a clear direction,” he said. “We owe her better than that, and all the people who do this work, better than that.”