A New York City doctor stricken with the Ebola virus concealed from authorities his public travel and activities leading up to his diagnosis, a new report claims.
The story, reported Wednesday in the New York Post, was published as a recently quarantined nurse who treated Ebola patients told news outlets she plans to disregard orders to isolate herself.
Kaci Hickox, who recently returned from Ebola-stricken Sierra Leone, was initially quarantined in New Jersey after she registered a slight fever. She’s since tested free of the virus and has showed no symptoms, but health officials at her home in Maine have asked her to isolate herself from the public for 21 days.
Hickox told news outlets on Wednesday she plans to ignore the order and could take legal action if forced to do so. “I don’t plan on sticking to the guidelines,” Hickox said on NBC’s “Today Show.” “I remain appalled by these home quarantine policies that have been forced upon me.”
Hickox said she would instead follow the guidelines issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which call for strict self-monitoring but no isolation.
Officials in New York City, meanwhile, had to retrace the steps of Dr. Craig Spencer, who contracted Ebola after treating patients in Guinea and is now in treatment at Bellevue Hospital.
According to the New York Post, Spencer initially told authorities he had isolated himself in the days leading up to the appearance of his Ebola symptoms. But when police examined credit card statements as well as the electronic card used to ride the city subway, they found he had not only taken the subway, but dined out and visited a bowling alley.
Spencer finally ‘fessed up when a cop “got on the phone and had to relay questions to him through the Health Department,” a law enforcement source told the Post.
The controversy over how to treat people arriving from West Africa who have no immediate symptoms stems in part from a lack of unity in federal, state and local guidelines.
The CDC, for instance, does not recommend isolation or quarantine for healthcare workers who recently treated Ebola patients unless they have known exposure through an accidental needle stick, for example.
But some states are putting stricter rules in place, including New York and New Jersey, which are calling for a quarantine of people who have been around those infected with the virus. Maine is also calling for a quarantine, and officials there said they plan to work with Hickox to ensure she is isolated until Nov. 10.
CDC Director Tom Frieden said Monday that states have the authority to impose stricter guidelines. President Obama said he is opposed to quarantines of symptom-free people arriving from West Africa.
Complicating matters further, the U.S. military has required a 21-day quarantine for the troops that are returning from West Africa.
