The White House confirmed this weekend that officials will craft new guidelines for healthcare workers returning from West African countries affected by the Ebola outbreak, according to USA Today.
The move follows the governors of Illinois, New York and New Jersey's announcement of quarantine for aid workers returning from affected countries, according to the article. Although the White House did not request an end to state-level quarantines, a White House official told USA Today that President Barack Obama's administration has expressed concerns to the governors about them.
Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, earlier warned on ABC's This Week that quarantines could hurt efforts to contain the outbreak.
"Let's not forget the best way to stop this epidemic and protect America is to stop it in Africa, and you can really help stopping it in Africa if we have our people, our heroes, the healthcare workers, go there and help us to protect America," Fauci said.
Meanwhile, a five-year-old boy who developed a fever after returning to New York City from Guinea is in isolation at Bellevue Hospital, according to ABC News. Preliminary results are expected later tonight, according to the article. Last week, New York City doctor Craig Spencer, M.D., who treated patients in Guinea, tested positive for the virus and was placed in an isolation unit in the same hospital.
Kaci Hickox, a New Jersey nurse quarantined under the state protocols despite displaying no symptoms, criticized the process, calling it overbroad, and will file a federal lawsuit challenging the mandatory quarantine, according to Reuters.
"The case law makes clear that the policy should be driven by medical fact, not fear," said Norman Siegel, a civil rights lawyer representing Hickox. After similar criticism of the New York protocols, Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) announced he would relax some of the quarantine restrictions, according to Fox News.
A survey released Friday afternoon by the Association for Professions in Infection Control and Epidemiology found U.S. hospitals are poorly equipped to safeguard against the virus.
To learn more:
- read the USA Today article
- here's ABC's This Week story
- read the ABC article
- here's the Reuters article
- check out the Fox News article