Monday, the state of Maine and a nurse who had cared for people with Ebola in West Africa reached a deal that lets her go anywhere in public but requires her to keep a close eye on her health and report any symptoms.
The settlement was filed in nurse Kaci Hickox’s hometown of Fort Kent, in the far north of Maine. This is where she went back to live after being quarantined for a short time in New Jersey. The terms of an order issued by a judge in Maine on Friday will stay in place until November 10.
Last month, Hickox went to Sierra Leone to help people with Ebola. When he came back to the United States, he was put in a tent outside a hospital in New Jersey for four days, even though he didn’t have any symptoms.
She was very upset with how both Chris Christie, the governor of New Jersey, and Paul LePage, the governor of Maine, handled her case. Christie and LePage have both said that they did the right thing.
A few states have put in place mandatory quarantines for health workers coming back from Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, three West African countries that have been hit hard by Ebola. The federal government is trying to avoid scaring away potential medical volunteers.
The worst Ebola outbreak ever killed 4,951 people, almost all of whom lived in Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone.
“The Governor was very clear about how he felt about the case. People in the state who were really worried about the risks were listening to him “Eric Saunders, a lawyer for Hickox, said. “It’s hard to say that the fear and worries about safety aren’t real. But we also have to pay attention to what the law and science say.”
Medical experts say that the Ebola virus is spread through bodily fluids like blood or vomit from people who are sick with the disease. It is not in the air.
Both LePage’s office and the office of the Maine Attorney General did not want to say anything about the case.