Imposition of quarantines in the US generates criticism

The head of infectious disease control in the US Government, Anthony Fauci, warned on October 26 that the imposition of mandatory quarantines to medical personnel that returns from West Africa can deter many professionals to combat Ebola in these countries.

The states of New York, New Jersey and Illinois imposed mandatory quarantines of 21 days to anyone who comes with the risk of having contracted Ebola in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea, countries where the most part of an epidemic that has caused the death of nearly 5,000 people is concentrared.

“This is a really unacceptable end and I think that my basic human rights have been violated,” said nurse Kaci Hickox to CNN, who landed last Friday at the Newark International Airport (New Jersey), and despite not presenting symptoms of the virus, has been placed in quarantine.

It is “inhuman” putting in a “prison” to health workers by the fact of having worked in countries considered at risk, she added.

Amid criticism for these measures, the Governor of Florida, Rick Scott, signed on October 26 an executive order which also compels travelers who return to this state from Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone to undergo medical monitoring.