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Once again, it is a nurse who has taken the Ebola media spotlight this week. Kaci Hickox, a nurse who cared for Ebola patients in Sierra Leone found herself quarantined against her will in New Jersey upon her return to the US, in spite of the fact that she tested negative for the virus. After a 3 day isolation in less than desirable accommodations, she was transported home where she was supposed to remain under home quarantine but is now declaring that the quarantine is unnecessary and counterproductive, and is openly defying the order by going out in public.
Additional breaches in voluntary quarantine from those returning from Ebola-plagued Africa occurred when NBC medical correspondent, Dr. Nancy Snyderman in New Jersey and Dr. Craig Spencer in New York left their homes and ventured out into public spaces.
On Monday, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) called for voluntary home quarantine for workers with the highest risk for Ebola infection. It also specified that most medical personnel returning from Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea would not need to be kept in isolation.
In spite of this, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, mandated a 21-day mandatory quarantine policy for all healthcare workers exposed to Ebola. Although this move has received much criticism, it did get the support of Dr. Bruce Beutler, an American doctor and researcher and Nobel Prize winner for Medicine and Physiology for his work researching the the body’s overall immune system. He is currently the Director of the Center for the Genetics of Host Defense at the University of Texas Southwestern Center in Dallas. He favors Christie’s quarantine policy “because it’s not entirely clear that they can’t transmit the disease,” referring to asymptomatic healthcare workers like Kaci Hickox.
New York and Illinois have also have followed suit and mandated mandatory 21-day home quarantine policies. Although there is plenty of scientific evidence indicating there’s very little chance that a random person will contract Ebola unless they touch bodily fluids of an infected person, the thought is that the authorities need to do something to calm Americans’ fears. As Mike Osterholm, an infectious disease epidemiologist at the University of Minnesota, says, "You want to try to eliminate not just real risk, but perceived risk."
There are thoughts on both sides of this issue which has led to heated discussions at times. There are concerns about the potential impact with both pathways of re-entry requirements for Ebola healthcare workers. What are your thoughts about this? Please take our survey to share your opinions. Let your voice be heard.
Specializes in Oncology; medical specialty website.
The next thing the politicians will be suggesting is an implantable thermometer for everyone returning from taking care of ebola patients in Africa....lol
Don't laugh...did you see the kook on "Shark Tank" Friday who wanted to develop implantable Bluetooth devices?
I'm by no means saying that was appropriate, I'm saying there was no proof that she did not have ebola and there was an indicator that further monitoring was required, which is the same thing the CDC says.
[h=1]"Liberian Woman with Fever Hospitalized in Oregon, Awaits Ebola Test Results[/h] 1 [h=2]A Liberian woman with a 102-degree fever was hospitalized in the Portland, Oregon, area on Friday and is undergoing testing for Ebola, reports The Oregonian."[/h]
Specializes in Oncology; medical specialty website.
Actually I continue to check it to make sure it continues to read what I hope it reads. I don't just take two conflicting readings and take the one that I like.
And yet that one aberrant reading had everyone running screaming. Well, not everyone. And yes, of course you would continue to assess the patient. The point was you check again when something seems off. Unfortunately, some people took that one reading, which was most likely due to facial flushing, and ran with it. "See! She's sick! Lock her up!"
"Liberian Woman with Fever Hospitalized in Oregon, Awaits Ebola Test Results
1A Liberian woman with a 102-degree fever was hospitalized in the Portland, Oregon, area on Friday and is undergoing testing for Ebola, reports The Oregonian."
And yet that one aberrant reading had everyone running screaming. Well, not everyone. And yes, of course you would continue to assess the patient. The point was you check again when something seems off. Unfortunately, some people took that one reading, which was most likely due to facial flushing, and ran with it. "See! She's sick! Lock her up!"
As I've pointed out before, her one reading of a fever shouldn't have been sufficient to initiate an involuntary quarantine and in general I don't think a governor or non-health department entity should be able to institute an involuntary quarantine, but she's also different than other workers returning from western africa that have not registered a fever at any time, although it seems we want to equate her to someone that has never had any concerning symptoms.
We don't leave it to screeners to decide if a temp is due to a person's inherent impatience or not and for very good reason.
During the incubation period the ebola virus exists almost completely within liver and spleen tissue and typically does not enter the bloodstream. Both the liver and spleen are fully capable of initiating a partial inflammatory response, such as fever, due to viral infection even without transmission of the virus into the bloodstream (as well as numerous other conditions that don't involve the process entering the bloodstream).
OCNRN63, RN
5,979 Posts
Don't laugh...did you see the kook on "Shark Tank" Friday who wanted to develop implantable Bluetooth devices?