The nurse who was quarantined after returning from treating Ebola patients in West Africa has given the State of Maine until Thursday to let her move freely, setting up what could be a test case of whether state quarantines are legal
The nurse, Kaci Hickox, 33, who was confined first by New Jersey when she came back to the United States and then by Maine, did a blitz on morning television challenging her confinement by Maine officials and saying that she would not continue to obey the restrictions.
In an interview, Ms. Hickox said that she was prepared to challenge Maine’s 21-day in-home quarantine policy.
“To completely restrict me to my household and tell me not to go to the grocery store or to go for a jog, or basically to leave my house at all, in the concern that maybe I will develop Ebola symptoms, is crazy,” Ms. Hickox said.
On Wednesday evening, Maine health officials said they would seek a court order against Ms. Hickox to keep her quarantined at home. At a news conference, the state’s health commissioner, Mary Mayhew, did not name Ms. Hickox, but she said that the state would act against anyone returning from West Africa who had worked with Ebola patients and refused to stay at home.
“When it is made clear by an individual in this risk category that they do not intend to voluntarily stay at home for the remaining 21 days,” Ms. Mayhew said, “we will immediately seek a court order to ensure that they do not make contact with the public.”
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Ms. Hickox is the latest health care worker entangled in the growing concern over Ebola. Seven of the nine people who have been treated for Ebola in the United States have been health care workers who came in contact with Ebola patients either in West Africa or in Texas, where a Liberian man died of the disease.
News that an infected doctor and nurse traveled before showing symptoms — on commercial airplanes and in taxis and public transit — has prompted concerns about whether there is enough oversight of them. People pose a risk of contagion only when they are symptomatic.
While federal public health officials have played down the effectiveness of quarantines, the public seems to favor a more aggressive response. A CBS News poll released Wednesday found that 80 percent of Americans support quarantines for travelers arriving from West Africa.
Health care officials have enacted strict public health measures, including mandatory quarantines in states like New York and New Jersey. In Texas on Wednesday, Gov. Rick Perry said that an unidentified nurse who had just returned from West Africa had agreed to self-quarantine for 21 days.
The decision by the nurse in Maine to challenge her quarantine will test the resolve of local officials there.
State law gives the governor authority to confine individuals if there is “an actual or threatened epidemic or public health threat.” In 2007, Maine used the law to confine a homeless man who had drug-resistant tuberculosis, according to state health reports.
One of Ms. Hickox’s lawyers, Steve Hyman, told ABC News he did not believe the state had legal authority to confine his client. “The standard is,” he said, “does Kaci have an infectious disease or agent? Does she harbor an infection? The answer is no.”
Norman Siegel, a prominent civil rights lawyer who also representing Ms. Hickox, said on the “Today” show on NBC that they would take legal action if Maine officials went to court to enforce a quarantine. He said the state had no justification to do so.
Flanked by health care workers who had traveled to West Africa, President Obama said Wednesday in an address at the White House that travel bans and overly strict quarantines would be counterproductive.
“If we are not dealing with that problem there, it will come here,” Mr. Obama said. “If we are discouraging our health care workers who are prepared to make these sacrifices from traveling to these places in need, then we are not doing our job in terms of looking after our own public safety.”
In a statement Wednesday, the organization with which Ms. Hickox worked in West Africa, Doctors Without Borders, said it “strongly disagrees with blanket, forced quarantine for health care workers returning from Ebola affected countries.” It said, “Such a measure is not based upon established medical science.”
While Maine’s governor has not issued any broad rules on Ebola quarantines, he posted the Maine State Police outside the residence in Fort Kent where the nurse is staying, he said in his statement, “for both her protection and the health of the community.”
Ms. Hickox said that she had been monitoring her health by taking her temperature twice a day.
Her story began Friday, just after Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey and Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York jointly announced a mandatory quarantine for all health workers who show symptoms after returning from treating Ebola patients abroad.
That day Ms. Hickox arrived at Newark Liberty International Airport, where a forehead scanner showed she had a temperature of 101 degrees. She said that a later, more accurate reading by an oral thermometer recorded a normal temperature, 98.6, and that she had had no symptoms since.
Ms. Hickox was confined to a tent with no shower, television or reading materials. From there, she sparred in the media with Mr. Christie. “My human rights have been violated,” she said, “and we must react in order to ensure that other health care workers do not endure such injustice.”
Ms. Hickox was released from quarantine in New Jersey on Monday, and she went back to Maine.
Mr. Christie denied her release was a reversal of policy.
“I didn’t reverse any decision,” Mr. Christie said. “She hadn’t had any symptoms for 24 hours. And she tested negative for Ebola. So there was no reason to keep her.”
An earlier version of this article overstated the number of health care workers infected with Ebola who traveled before showing symptoms. It was one nurse and one doctor, and did not involve a cruise ship.