MOSCOW, November 9 (RIA Novosti) — Kaci Hickox, a nurse, who successfully fought quarantine orders after returning from West Africa, intends to relocate from her home state of Maine, Reuters reports, citing a local newspaper.
Hickox and her boyfriend Ted Wilbur plan to leave Maine after November 10, the last day of the 21-day incubation period. The couple hopes to “get [their] lives back on track,” Wilbur told the Press Herald newspaper.
Authorities in New Jersey and Maine tried to force Hickox to stay in quarantine after she returned from Sierra Leone, where she had treated Ebola patients. She was forced to spend four days in a tent outside a hospital in New Jersey under new state regulations. She was then release after showing no symptoms after 24 hours.
Hickox tested negative for the virus, but was later quarantined at Ted Wilbur’s home in Fort Kent, Maine. Wilbur had to agree to stay clear of the University of Maine campus, where he was studying under an accelerated nursing program, from which he ultimately withdrew from. “They didn’t show any leadership or support to me and they had an opportunity, as a nursing school, to act like a medical community, and they didn’t,” he said, as quoted by the Press Herald.
“I wish that his university had showed more leadership in all of this. I think they only fueled the flames of confusion and misinformation. That’s been really disappointing for us,” Hickox told the Associated Press.
On November 3, Maine District Court Chief Judge Charles C. LaVerdiere sided with Hickox ruling that state authorities failed to provide enough ground to quarantine the nurse. However, she ordered Hickox to monitor her health and submit daily reports until the incubation period expires. “I am humbled today by the judge’s decision and even more humbled by the support that we have received by the town of Fort Kent, the state of Maine, across the United States and even across the border,” Hickox said, according to the International Business Times.
The deadliest Ebola outbreak ever recorded has left approximately 5,000 people dead in the West African countries of Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone. Over 13,000 have been diagnosed with the disease, according to the WHO. The virus is not airborne, but rather is transmitted by direct contact with bodily fluids.
