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Maine Officials Fail to Reach Compromise With Nurse Over Ebola Quarantine - New York Times

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U.S. |Maine Officials Fail to Reach Compromise With Nurse Over Ebola Quarantine



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Play Video|0:38

Maine Nurse Defies Quarantine



Maine Nurse Defies Quarantine



Kaci Hickox, the Maine nurse who recently returned from treating Ebola patients in Sierra Leone, defied her state-ordered quarantine by going for a bike ride with her boyfriend.


October 30, 2014. Photo by Robert F. Bukaty/Associated Press.





FORT KENT, Me. — The governor of Maine said Thursday that negotiations with the nurse who cared for Ebola patients in Sierra Leone had failed to reach a compromise that would allow her to take walks, runs or rides but would prevent her from mingling with the public.


As a result, Gov. Paul LePage said he would “exercise the full extent of his authority allowable by law.” Though he did not make it explicit what the next stop would be, state officials have said that they would seek a court order to enforce a 21-day quarantine on the nurse, Kaci Hickox, 33.


“I was ready and willing — and remain ready and willing — to reasonably address the needs of health care workers meeting guidelines to assure the public health is protected,” Mr. LePage said in a statement.


Ms. Hickox, who says a quarantine is unnecessary and counterproductive, defied Maine officials on Thursday morning, leaving her house for a short bicycle ride.



She rode down a quiet paved road with her boyfriend, Ted Wilbur, followed closely by the police and a caravan of reporters. The couple rode less than a mile, then turned onto a graded gravel trail on a former railroad right of way flanked by pines. Ms. Hickox and Mr. Wilbur, wearing jackets in the crisp Maine morning, returned to the house an hour later.



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Questions and answers on the scale of the outbreak and the science of the Ebola virus.




OPEN Graphic



Ms. Hickox returned from Sierra Leone on Friday after spending a month treating Ebola patients with the group Doctors Without Borders. She was isolated in a tent at a New Jersey hospital after she registered a low-grade fever on a forehead scanner. She had not previously registered a fever and has not since.


She has never shown symptoms of the virus, and tested negative for it several hours after being quarantined; the disease is considered contagious only when a person displays symptoms. She was released Monday and allowed to travel to Maine, which also wants her to remain in a quarantine.


Ms. Hickox spoke briefly Thursday to a police officer in front of her house after returning from her ride, then went inside. She had also left her home briefly on Wednesday night when she stepped outside to speak to reporters.


The controversy over quarantine continued to bubble up across the country. The authorities in Louisiana told participants of an infectious disease conference next week in New Orleans not to attend if they had been in the three West African countries hardest hit by the Ebola outbreak or had had contact with Ebola patients.


“We see no utility in you traveling to New Orleans to simply be confined to your room,” a letter from the state’s Department of Health and Hospitals told participants of the annual meeting of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.


In Maine and elsewhere, the fight over Ebola was poised to be one of the final defining moments of the midterm elections, with Mr. LePage, a Republican, in a close race for re-election, along with governors from both parties in other states that have imposed quarantines, including Connecticut, Georgia and Florida.


“So many states have started enacting these policies that I think are just completely not evidence-based,” Ms. Hickox said Wednesday. “They don’t do a good job of balancing the risks and benefits when thinking about taking away an individual’s rights.”


“I am not going to sit around and be bullied by politicians and forced to stay in my home when I am not a risk to the American public,” she said Wednesday.


Norman Siegel, a prominent civil rights lawyer who is representing Ms. Hickox, said that “in our view she is not restricted to do anything.”


Ms. Hickox’s defiance put the focus for the next few days on one of the most remote reaches of the country, Fort Kent, a town on the Canadian borderwhere she shares a home with her boyfriend. If detained by officials, she will have three days to seek a court order to challenge the quarantine.


Ms. Hickox said that the stigmatization of health workers had “exploded” across the country. She warned that quarantines would ultimately lead to families’ being shuttered in their homes and would deter aid workers from going to West Africa to help treat Ebola at its origin.


“I understand how fear spreads,” she said. “But if I’m a nurse and I have a patient in the hospital, it’s our responsibility as medical professionals to advocate for our patients. Now, it’s the medical professionals who are being stigmatized. Even if there is popular public opinion, we still have to advocate for what’s right.”


In Louisiana, the authorities came under criticism after telling participants in an international conference on infectious tropical diseases next week in New Orleans not attend if they had recently been in Liberia, Sierra Leone or Guinea, or had had contact with someone infected with the Ebola virus.


“It’s a little stunning,” said Dr. Timothy Endy, a participant who is the chief of infectious diseases at Upstate Medical University, which is part of the State University of New York in Syracuse. “They are saying if you are coming from any of the affected countries, don’t come to this conference.”


The letter from the state said that the measures were being taken “out of an abundance of caution” and that they did not “reflect a lack of appreciation for your service and sacrifice,” but participants saw it differently.


Karen A. Goraleski, executive director of the association, said that the group had tried to push back against the policy, but to no avail.


Ms. Goraleski said that the state’s letter was sent to all participants on Wednesday morning, and that “this news is making its way around the globe.”


“We all know that there’s medical science, and there’s the political side,” she said. “There’s a public perception and we all see the news.”


The association’s current president, Dr. Alan Magill, who is director for malaria at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Global Health Program, said that 10 to 15 participants had canceled their trips but he would not know the total number until next week. Louisiana’s decision, he said, would harm the conference's Ebola sessions, where scientists, doctors and administrators who had been in the region were going to teach others.


“We are clearly going to lose some of our speakers who have had the most experience and that would deprive the learning from going forward,” Dr. Magill said.


The state health officer for Louisiana, Dr. Jimmy Guidry, said any conference attendee who had been in West Africa would be asked to self-quarantine.


“If they are out and about in a country where the disease is, do they truthfully out and out know that they had no exposure?” Dr. Guidry said by telephone. “I’ve got to tell my folks who live here that I’ve got their interest at heart.”



Jess Bidgood reported from Fort Kent, Me., and Dave Philipps from New York. Sabrina Tavernise contributed reporting from Washington.




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