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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.
Yes it is because that is not how the disease progresses.
I'm mostly just talking about the development of symptoms, not that exact scenario. I worded it wrong, sorry. I was under the impression that symptoms could develop at any time during the 21 day period, which was the point I was trying to make.
If I'm wrong, don't kill me! I've been so busy that I have not had much time to research. I'm not trying to battle anyone, just to have a discussion!
I do and did. However there seems to be an element of fearful and ignorant people in these threads who are grasping at any phrases which they hope will support their irrational fear. They are often not reading carefully or using critical thinking as they engage information.
I would hope the idea of catching Ebola from tree-licking behavior would be so preposterous nobody would take it seriously but judging from what I'm reading here you are absolutely right. Yikes!
I'm mostly just talking about the development of symptoms, not that exact scenario. I worded it wrong, sorry. I was under the impression that symptoms could develop at any time during the 21 day period, which was the point I was trying to make.
If I'm wrong, don't kill me! I've been so busy that I have not had much time to research. I'm not trying to battle anyone, just to have a discussion!
:)
Welcome to the discussion!! It would probably be helpful for you to read the many articles about how quarantine is not the answer. Yes, symptoms can develop in the 21 day period but the patient is not contagious until the height of the disease and that is not going to happen in a 2 hour period. The problem is, as toomuchbaloney noted, people are grasping onto bits and pieces of information (misinformation really) and running with it. You asked if your scenario was possible and I pointed out that it isn't. No killing needed or intended.
1) As a free citizen who has committed no crime, Kaci has rights. Rights which include the right not to be held against her will in any location.
2) If Charles Duncan's family did not get Ebola by living with him while he was sick, Kaci is not going to transmit Ebola to anyone by going for a bike ride while she is not sick.
3) Say they'd followed through on their promise and arrested her for leaving her house (thankfully they did not, and I note the LEOs following her were not exactly dressed in hazmat suits)....what then? Quarantine her in jail? Riiiight.
4) I've asked this before and have yet to receive an answer from the lock-her-up crowd. How many of your civil liberties are you willing to give up because of a disease that is less likely to happen to you than is a shark attack?
5) I don't see any of Kaci's critics among the talking-head crowd getting off their derrieres to go help people in West Africa who are impacted slightly more than we here in the US.
Specializes in Clinical Research, Outpt Women's Health.
The problem is the MD that came back and went bowling and then was ill with Ebola. That has really stirred peoples fears even more and I think that needs to be acknowledged.
Specializes in Oncology; medical specialty website.
While I know that the risk of infection is slight, the general public that lives off 24 hr sensationalized news bites does not. I can empathize with her plight, but I don't agree with her blatant disregard of the quarantine policy. What happens when Joe Schmo comes into contact with ebola and ignores a quarantine mandate after being recognized as being at risk? Joe Schmo isn't a health care worker and doesn't realize he's happily spreading a nasty bug every time he sneezes in public...after all that nurse ignores her quarantine and nothing bad happened!
On a more cynical note...a bunch of us were discussing this at work yesterday since it was all over the news. The general consensus was Kaci is angling for a book deal or a Lifetime movie of the week deal. We all pretty much figure her nursing career is toast after this.
Yeah, you know how those selfish MSF people are...jetting off to third-world countries to take care of those irritating sick people, just so they can make a buck off it later.
Specializes in Oncology; medical specialty website.
And I have zero respect for someone so self-centered that she is willing to put a population at risk for her own agenda. (Think $$$) She is using this as a get-rich-quick scheme and people like you are falling for it hook, line, and sinker.
Please explain how she is putting a population at risk. She is not infectious. She does not have Ebola. She is monitoring her temperature and last I heard she hasn't gone to any public places (unless the woods in her remote area count).
You never know. I mean, she could infect a squirrel or some other innocent small woodland creature.
Specializes in Oncology; medical specialty website.
She was detained against her will. The living conditions of that detainment are irrelevant to the point that she was unnecessarily detained against her will.
Absolutely. She can come live with me and my family. I would have no concerns provided she remained afebrile.
Remember you are speaking about a person. A young woman, a nurse, who put her own life on hold, put her health at risk, and traveled to "ground zero" to use her expertise and training to help people in desperate need, and to help eradicate this virus and protect even us back here in the 1st world. You should respect and admire her not speak about her or treat her like a prisoner. Perhaps ask yourself what you have done for society?
As a career EMT, volunteer and an RN, I know exactly what I have done for society. As someone who has had someone hug them in the middle of CVS for literally saving their life, I know EXACTLY what I have done for society! As someone who is responsible for teaching hundreds of people the life saving skills of CPR, I know EXACTLY what I have done for society.
How dare you even question that!
And I have zero respect for someone so self-centered that she is willing to put a population at risk for her own agenda. (Think $$$) She is using this as a get-rich-quick scheme and people like you are falling for it hook, line, and sinker.
Please provide proof that she is doing this as a get-rich-quick scheme.
Specializes in Peds, Med-Surg, Disaster Nsg, Parish Nsg.
ADMIN REQUEST
Everyone is entitled to his/her opinion and the right to express that opinion without derogatory responses. There is no 100% guarantee that anyone knows all there is to know about the Ebola virus. This has already been proven by the blunders already made.
Please refrain from inflammatory comments. You can disagree......but please do so without being disagreeable.
As a career EMT, volunteer and an RN, I know exactly what I have done for society. As someone who has had someone hug them in the middle of CVS for literally saving their life, I know EXACTLY what I have done for society! As someone who is responsible for teaching hundreds of people the life saving skills of CPR, I know EXACTLY what I have done for society.
How dare you even question that!
And I have zero respect for someone so self-centered that she is willing to put a population at risk for her own agenda. (Think $$$) She is using this as a get-rich-quick scheme and people like you are falling for it hook, line, and sinker.
Sorry you got so defensive, the "you" in my statement was generic and not directly completely at you. But..
Are we seriously equating teaching BLS for a paycheck to leaving your family and friends, traveling to a hot zone in a third world country, and treating terminally ill?
You have zero respect for what she has done but you are quick to brag about how you "literally" saved someone's life?
Please cite the source of this get rich quick money she has? Book deal? TV show? That's often why people ship out on high-risk volunteer missions to third world countries: for selfish reasons.
If she gets a movie/book deal from this good for her. Someone of her quality would likely use it as a platform for raising awareness.
Specializes in NICU, PICU, Transport, L&D, Hospice.
It is not her stance I am upset about at all. It is the way she is going about it.
I hear that here on base too.
They think she should have just complied and made her point while being stripped of her civil rights. She just should have been a nice little girl, compliant with the important people's wishes regardless of her own rights or expertise.
meh. she has every right to challenge this overstep in any way she prefers, she has broken no laws so what is the beef? is she supposed to play nicer than the people who wish to quarantine her further?
It would probably be helpful for you to read the many articles about how quarantine is not the answer. Yes, symptoms can develop in the 21 day period but the patient is not contagious until the height of the disease and that is not going to happen in a 2 hour period. The problem is, as toomuchbaloney noted, people are grasping onto bits and pieces of information (misinformation really) and running with it. You asked if your scenario was possible and I pointed out that it isn't. No killing needed or intended. 
Tina, RN
513 Posts
I'm mostly just talking about the development of symptoms, not that exact scenario. I worded it wrong, sorry. I was under the impression that symptoms could develop at any time during the 21 day period, which was the point I was trying to make.
If I'm wrong, don't kill me! I've been so busy that I have not had much time to research. I'm not trying to battle anyone, just to have a discussion!
:)