Nurse Kaci Hickox defies Ebola quarantine in US by riding bike

AN American nurse defied voluntary quarantine for Ebola healthcare workers, by going on a bike ride followed by police.

Nurse Kaci Hickox goes for her controversial ride in Fort Kent, Maine.

AN American nurse defied Maine’s voluntary quarantine for health care workers who have treated Ebola patients, leaving her home today for a bike ride.

The governor of Maine said negotiations with the nurse have broken down and he is ready to exercise the “full extent” of this authority to protect the public.

Kaci Hickox and her boyfriend stepped out of their home and rode away on bicycles, followed by state police who were monitoring her movements and public interactions. Police couldn’t detain her without a court order signed by a judge.

The ride keeps a spotlight on a person hailed by some as a defender of individual rights and criticised by others as risking public health.

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Hickox, who volunteered in Sierra Leone with Doctors Without Borders and returned to the US last week, contends there’s no need for quarantine because she’s showing no symptoms. She’s also tested negative for the deadly disease, though it can take days for the virus to reach detectable levels.

State officials were going to court in an effort to detain Hickox for the remainder of the 21-day incubation period for Ebola that ends on November 10.

Governor Paul LePage said the state was willing to agree to arrangements that would have allowed Hickox to go for walks, runs and bicycle rides while preventing her from going into public places or coming within 3 feet (less than a metre) of others. But the governor said those discussions failed.

Hickox, 33, told reporters that she hoped for a compromise with health officials, but her actions indicated she had no intention of remaining in isolation.

“I really hope that we can work things out amicably and continue to negotiate,” she said as she and her boyfriend rode their bikes on a dirt path.

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It was the second time Hickox broke quarantine. She left her home on Wednesday evening briefly to speak to reporters, even shaking a hand that was offered to her.

After returning from Africa, Hickox stepped into the media glare last week when she became subject of a mandatory quarantine in New Jersey.

After being released from a hospital there, she returned to her small town of Fort Kent, where she was placed under what Maine authorities called a voluntary quarantine.

She said she is following the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommendation of daily monitoring. But she said she is no threat to others because she has no symptoms.

“I’m not willing to stand here and let my civil rights be violated when it’s not science-based,” she said.

States have broad authority when it comes to such matters. But Maine health officials could have a tough time convincing a judge that Hickox poses a threat, said attorney Jackie L. Caynon III, who specialises in health law in Worcester, Massachusetts.

“If somebody isn’t showing signs of the infection, then it’s kind of hard to say someone should be under mandatory quarantine,” he said.

Ebola, which is spread through direct contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person, has killed thousands of people in Africa, but only four people have been diagnosed with it in the US. People can’t be infected just by being near someone who’s sick, and people aren’t contagious unless they’re sick, health officials say.

Guidelines from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend daily monitoring for health care workers like Hickox who have come into contact with Ebola patients. But some states like Maine are going above and beyond those guidelines.

AP, Dow Jones