Kaci Hickox, the first nurse forcibly quarantined in New Jersey under the state’s new policy, said in a telephone interview with CNN that her isolation at a hospital was “inhumane,” adding: “We have to be very careful about letting politicians make health decisions.” (University of Texas at Arlington)
Update at 12:40 p.m.: According to CBS News and ABC News tweets, Kaci Hickox left Rutgers University Hospital at 12:20 p.m. Messages have been left for a hospital spokesperson to confirm.
[Editor's note: This item is being continuously updated.]
Just yesterday New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie was adamant: Kaci Hickox, University of Texas at Arlington graduate, would remain in quarantine in a tent at Rutgers University Hospital despite the fact the nurse had repeatedly tested negative for Ebola. Christie turned a deaf cry to the swelling chorus of outrage and, through a spokesman, said late Sunday that “New Jersey is not changing its quarantine protocol.” But this morning, that has changed.
“I’m hopeful that this morning if all goes well we’ll be able to release her and send her back to Maine,” Christie told The New York Times in a brief interview this morning. It’s not yet clear what changed Christie’s mind.
She will be released before noon Dallas time.
Hickox lives in Fort Kent, Maine. And despite the fact she worked with Ebola patients in Sierra Leone, the nurse who works with Doctors Without Borders has not tested positive for Ebola. Yet when she returned to the U.S. on Friday, she was immediately quarantined. And as recently as this morning, Hickox had planned to sue New Jersey for her release.
At around 8:40 a.m. Dallas time, the governor’s Twitter account began releasing the following statement from the New Jersey Department of Health: “”Since testing negative for Ebola early Saturday morning, the patient being monitored in isolation has thankfully been symptom free for the last 24 hrs. After being evaluated by CDC & her clinicians the patient is being discharged. Since the patient had direct exposure to individuals suffering from the Ebola Virus in 1 of the 3 West African nations she is subject to a mandatory New Jersey quarantine order. After consulting with her, she has requested transport to Maine. that transport will be arranged via a private carrier not via mass transit or commercial aircraft. She will remain subject to New Jersey’s mandatory quarantine order while in New Jersey. “Health officials in Maine have been notified of her arrangements and will make a determination under their own laws on her treatment when she arrives.”
The health department goes on to explain its decision to quarantine someone without Ebola following her arrival in Newark on Friday.
“The patient was initially found to have no symptoms, but later developed a fever,” says the series of tweets. “Because she had symptoms, she was subsequently transferred to University Hospital where she was placed in isolation under a quarantine order for review and testing. She was cared for in a monitored area of the hospital with an advanced tenting system that was recently toured and evaluated by the CDC. While in isolation, every effort was made to insure that she remained comfortable with access to a computer, cell phone, reading material and nourishment of choice.”
About that fever …
As Hickox wrote in The Dallas Morning News Saturday, when she initially landed at Newark Liberty International Airport she had no temperature. In fact, hers was 98 degrees. But after being detained without explanation for several hours, it rose to 101 degrees. And even then it had been measured with a forehead scanner.
“I explained that an oral thermometer would be more accurate and that the forehead scanner was recording an elevated temperature because I was flushed and upset,” she wrote in this newspaper.
Hour later, at the hospital, her temperature registered 98.6. Shortly after that her bloodwork tested negative for Ebola.
Just yesterday the health department said that “federal, state and University Hospital officials continue to evaluate the patient’s medical status. Our primary concern is ensuring the health of the patient and the public.”
Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at NIH, went on Meet the Press Sunday to say health-care workers returning from Ebola-stricken countries need to be monitored, but not quarantined.