US nurse faces legal fight over Ebola rules

An American nurse at the centre of a dispute about how the US should respond to Ebola has defied a quarantine by leaving her home for a bike ride, paving the way for a legal fight with state authorities.

Kaci Hickox, who returned from treating patients in Ebola-ravaged Sierra Leone last week, went for a cycle yesterday morning, accompanied by her boyfriend, near her home in the northeastern state of Maine followed by two police cars.

State officials want Ms Hickox (33) to remain inside her home until the 21-day incubation period in which Ebola can remain without symptoms has lapsed. She maintains that she should not be isolated because she has shown no symptoms and has tested negative.

Health officials say Ebola spreads only from contact with the bodily fluids of an ill patient.

State officials said they would seek a court order to enforce Ms Hickox's quarantine in a house in Fort Kent, a town of 4,000 people on Maine's northern border with Canada.

‘Symptom free’

She has said she has no intention of abiding by the quarantine, describing herself as “completely healthy and symptom free”. She expressed frustration at the intended legal action by state officials. “If this does occur, then I will challenge those legal actions,” she said.

Ms Hickox was quarantined at a New Jersey hospital on October 24th after returning from west Africa before being sent home to Maine.

The Republican governor of Maine, Paul LePage, said this week that the state has a greater responsibility to protect its population.“While we certainly respect the rights of one individual, we must be vigilant in protecting 1.3 million Mainers,” he said.

Stemming Ebola in the US, where nine cases have been treated, has become a political issue in the run-up to Tuesday’s mid-term elections. New Jersey and other states have introduced quarantine rules after a New York doctor tested positive on October 23rd.

This has put them at odds with President Barack Obama and US federal health officials, who recommend daily monitoring rather than enforced isolation.