FORT KENT, Maine (AP) —
State police plan to monitor the movements and interactions of a nurse
who vowed to defy the state's quarantine for health care workers who
treat Ebola patients, but troopers cannot take her into custody without a
judge's permission.
Hickox contends there's no need for quarantine because she's showing no symptoms, and she made her point by stepping outside her home briefly Wednesday night to talk to reporters, even shaking one reporter's hand. Police watched from across the street.
"There's
a lot of misinformation about how Ebola is transmitted, and I can
understand why people are frightened. But their fear is not based on
medical facts," Norman Siegel, one of her attorneys, said Wednesday as a
showdown appeared imminent.
Hickox, who volunteered in Sierra
Leone with Doctors Without Borders, was the first person forced into New
Jersey's mandatory quarantine for people arriving at the Newark airport
from three West African countries. Hickox spent the weekend in a tent
in New Jersey before traveling to the home she shares with her
boyfriend, a nursing student at the University of Maine at Fort Kent."I'm not willing to stand here and let my civil rights be violated when it's not science-based," she told reporters Wednesday evening.
Generally, states have
broad authority when it comes to such matters. But Maine health
officials could have a tough time convincing a judge that Hickox poses a
threat, said attorney Jackie L. Caynon III, who specializes in health
law in Worcester, Massachusetts.
"If
somebody isn't showing signs of the infection, then it's kind of hard
to say someone should be under mandatory quarantine," he said.
Ebola,
which is spread through direct contact with the bodily fluids of an
infected person, has killed thousands of people in Africa, but only four
people have been diagnosed with it in the United States. People can't
be infected just by being near someone who's sick, and people aren't
contagious unless they're sick, health officials say.
Guidelines
from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend
daily monitoring for health care workers like Hickox who have come into
contact with Ebola patients. But some states like Maine are going above
and beyond those guidelines.
The
defense department is going even further. On Wednesday, Defense
Secretary Chuck Hagel ordered military men and women helping fight Ebola
to undergo 21-day quarantines that start upon their return — instead of
their last exposure to an Ebola patient.
President Barack Obama
warned that overly restrictive measures imposed upon returning health
care workers could discourage them from volunteering in Africa.
Maine
Gov. Paul LePage, who canceled campaign events to keep tabs on the
situation, maintained that the state must be "vigilant" to protect
others.
State law allows a
judge to grant temporary custody of someone if health officials
demonstrate "a clear and immediate public health threat."
The
state's court filing was expected late Wednesday or early Thursday,
officials said. If a judge grants the state request, then Hickox will
appeal the decision on constitutional grounds, necessitating a hearing,
Siegel said.
Siegel said the
nurse hopes her fight against the quarantine will help bring an end to
misinformation about how the Ebola virus is transmitted.
"She
wants to have her voice in the debate about how America handles the
Ebola crisis. She has an important voice and perspective," he said.___
Associated Press writers David Sharp in Portland and Alanna Durkin in Augusta contributed to this report.
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