UN Ebola leader: Stop the ‘hype and hysteria’

The head of the United Nations Ebola response team is warning against “hype and hysteria” that he said has driven some states to impose quarantines on returning health workers.

“Anything that will dissuade foreign trained personnel from coming here to West Africa and joining us on the frontline to fight the fight would be very, very unfortunate,” Anthony Banbury, head of the U.N. Ebola Emergency Response Mission, told Reuters.

{mosads}Three states — New York, New Jersey and Illinois — announced this weekend that health workers would be quarantined after returning from Ebola-stricken countries, even if they are not showing symptoms of the virus. New York and Illinois have since walked back their policies.

Several states, including Florida, Maryland and Virginia, are requiring “high risk” health workers to isolate themselves, though the restrictions fall short of a legal order.

The international aid group Doctors Without Borders said Monday that the policies are already prompting some of its volunteers to reduce the length of their commitment.

“We need to be guided by science and not political agendas,” Dr. Joanne Liu, the group’s international president, wrote in a statement. She warned that other countries could follow suit and enact similarly “short sighted” rules.

She said diligent monitoring was a far better policy than “coercive isolation of asymptomatic individuals.”

The group, also known by its French name, Médecins Sans Frontières, has sent more than 700 health workers to West Africa since the outbreak began. Three of those workers have developed Ebola, including the New York City doctor, Craig Spencer.

The push for quarantines began after Spencer was diagnosed with Ebola on Thursday, one week after returning from Guinea. While city health officials said he spent “most of his time” in his apartment, he also used the subway, took a taxi and visited a bowling alley.

The White House on Monday said it will issue national guidelines for returning health workers, which will likely not include quarantines. One of the nation’s top doctors, Dr. Anthony Fauci, criticized the policy on “Meet the Press” on Sunday, calling it “a little bit draconian.”

The head of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, also remains staunchly opposed to the quarantines, his spokesman said Monday.

“Those who develop infections should be supported, not stigmatized,” Stéphane Dujarric told reporters.

Hundreds of American health workers are serving and have served in West Africa. Some, like the 40 or so staff members of the global nonprofit Samaritan’s Purse, follow their own guidelines, which are far stricter than the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s.

For three weeks after arriving in the U.S., each volunteer from Samaritan’s Purse is told to follow the same three-foot “no touch” rule they had in West Africa. They are told not to use public transportation or visit with family or friends.

Still, vice president Ken Isaacs said he feared that a nationwide quarantine policy would turn into “locking people up in a compound,” which he said would deter Americans from helping to fight Ebola in West Africa.

“The word quarantine sends chills down my spine,” he told The Hill. “We have to find a balance. The disease needs to be fought in West Africa, it needs to be beaten there or it’s going to continue leaking out.”

Nancy Writebol, an American missionary who successfully fought off an Ebola infection, echoed the concerns during an interview with MSNBC on Monday.

“I think the biggest problem is it’s going to deter our volunteer medical workers, doctors and nurses, from going,” she said, stressing that many people could not take three weeks off from work. “I think it’s really going to be harmful to our help for the West Africans.” 

— Ben Kamisar contributed 

This story was updated at 3:36 p.m.