Ebola nurse to defy US police by breaking quarantine

 
Defiant: nurse Kaci Hickox, left and in the isolation tent insists that she will not be bullied by politicians

An American nurse who treated Ebola patients in west Africa plans to end her voluntary quarantine today despite a threat that she may be detained by police

Officers were positioned across the street and watched as she gave a press conference outside the home of her boyfriend in Fort Kent in Maine.

Kaci Hickox, who says she has shown no symptoms of the killer virus, said she had abided by the state’s voluntary quarantine by having no contact with people in recent days.

But she said she will defy the authorities if the policy is not changed today. She told US TV networks: “I remain appalled by these home quarantine policies that have been forced upon me even though I am in perfectly good health.

“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.”

But state officials say she should remain in isolation until November 10, the end of the 21-day incubation period for Ebola. Department of Health and Human Services commissioner Mary Mayhew is seeking a court order allowing police to detain her. The case could serve as a test of the legality of state quarantines during the Ebola scare.

President Barack Obama has praised US medics who have volunteered to travel to west Africa to deal with the Ebola crisis as “heroes”. Saying they must be treated with dignity on their return, he added: “We can’t hermetically seal ourselves off.”

However, the Pentagon announced guidelines yesterday that said US troops returning from Ebola response missions in west Africa will be kept in supervised isolation for 21 days.

Guidelines from the federal Centres for Disease Control and Prevention recommend monitoring for health care workers like Ms Hickox, who worked in Sierra Leone with Médecins Sans Frontières, who have come into contact with Ebola patients.

But some states, including Maine, are going above and beyond guidelines.

Ms Hickox spent the weekend in an isolation tent in New Jersey before travelling to the home of her boyfriend, a student at the University of Maine.

The Royal Fleet Auxiliary ship Argus is set to reach Freetown Port in Sierra Leone carrying aid, supplies and vehicles. About 800 British military personnel are being deployed to help establish Ebola treatment centres and an Ebola training academy in the country.

The MoD said there were no plans to quarantine the troops on their return but they would be monitored.

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