Thread: California Orders Risk-Based Ebola Quarantines

California Orders Risk-Based Ebola Quarantines

State Health Department announces new regulations as Stanford surgeon places himself in voluntary quarantine

By Michelle Roberts, Kelly Goff and Matthew Glasser

Wednesday, Oct 29, 2014 • Updated at 5:22 PM PDT

Anyone arriving in California from an area with an active Ebola outbreak and came into contact with someone who had the deadly virus must be quarantined for 21 days, the state’s Department of Public Health ordered Wednesday, the same day a Stanford doctor decided to put himself in voluntary quarantine after treating Ebola patients in Liberia.

Dr. Colin Bucks is healthy but will remain in isolation for a total of 21 days, San Mateo County health officials said. He is in isolation and avoiding all close contact with others, meaning he is not going to work at Stanford Medical Center, but he is allowed to leave his house to go jogging by himself.

• Hagel Approves 21-Day Ebola Quarantine for Troops

Health officials said Bucks remains healthy, showing no signs of contracting the virus, and continues to take his temperature twice a day.

The California Department of Health released new regulations regarding the Ebola virus Wednesday morning.

• Nurse Amber Vinson, Now Ebola-Free, Home in Dallas

How and where affected people will be quarantined will be left to each county’s public health officials, the order said. Anyone traveling from the affected areas will be initially screened by federal officials at the airport.

State officials are informed of anyone meeting the criteria threshold, and local departments will now be asked in turn asked to manage individual cases.

• Made Pariahs for Helping? Ebola Aid Groups Struggle

Observation, monitoring and possible restriction of travel and movement can be ordered.

“This tailored approach for each traveler, implemented through partnership between the California Department of Public Health and local health officers, respects the individual circumstances of each traveler while protecting and preserving the public health,” the agency said in a statement.

• Girl, 7, Barred From School Over Ebola Fears: Family

Currently, active areas include the West African countries of Guinea, Mali, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

The order from Dr. Ron Chapman, director of the agency, also makes clear that failure to comply could result in misdemeanor criminal charges.

• UPDATEDMaine Seeks Court Order to Force Nurse Quarantine

In Southern California, Riverside County's health department announced Tuesday that two people recently returned from West Africa but said they did not contact any patients and were being monitored for 21 days. They are considered low risk.

Orange County health officials are monitoring two recent travelers as well, according to the Orange County Register.

It’s critical to note, to date, there have been no reported cases of Ebola in California.

http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/lo...280812552.html

In this case, it's better to err on the side of caution. We've been very lucky, so far. Let's increase our chances of remaining lucky, by quarantining people for 21 days. Then we can all be glad that they're OK and we're OK.
**********************************************
Americans first in this magnificent country

American jobs for American workers

Fair trade, not free trade

San Diego County: 3 in county under Ebola monitoring

State releases new quarantine order based on infection risk

By Paul Sisson 11:13 A.M.OCT. 29, 2014 Updated 6:44 P.M.

3

A health worker sprays disinfectant onto a college after they worked with the body of a man, suspected of contracting and dying form the Ebola virus on the outskirts of Monrovia, Liberia, Monday, Oct. 27, 2014. The United States will help fight Ebola over "the long haul," the American ambassador to the United Nations said on a trip to the West African countries hit by the outbreak.(AP Photo/Abbas Dulleh) The Associated Press

As the state issued a new quarantine order on Wednesday for travelers returning from West Africa, San Diego County is monitoring three people for symptoms of the disease, a public health official confirmed Wednesday evening.

The three individuals have a low risk of infection, according to the county Health and Human Services Agency.

They are among 19 statewide being monitored in 11 counties across California, according to a statement made by the California Department of Public Health. Only one person statewide, the statement adds, is “currently subject to a county quarantine at home with monitoring by the local health department, and poses no risk to the community.”

The state did not identify which county has the quarantined individual.

In Southern California, Riverside and Orange counties have each confirmed monitoring two people but all four are said to be low risk.

No Ebola case has yet been confirmed in California.

The new monitoring information came just as Dr. Ron Chapman, the state’s public health officer, issued a new order that requires local public health agencies to quarantine anyone assessed to meet “high risk” or “some risk” categories listed in recent monitoring regulations released by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Though not as strict as the controversial quarantines enacted in states including New York and New Jersey, the order does give local health agencies firmer direction on who should be isolated.

Anyone who has been in Guinea, Sierra Leone or Liberia within the last 21 days, and had direct contact with a symptomatic Ebola patient, is on the shortlist for quarantine.

Those who had unprotected contact with a patient’s bodily fluids, or who suffered a medical mishap like a “needle stick” while caring for a patient, are in the “high risk” category that would be quarantined immediately.

Chapman’s order also calls for a second category of people, those deemed to have only some risk of infection, to be identified for quarantine orders. This group includes aid workers who have cared for symptomatic Ebola patients while wearing full protective gear and following strict infection-control policies.

For this group, the CDPH has granted local health officers more leeway in deciding how much isolation is warranted.

“Although quarantine can involve isolation at home, it may be tailored to allow for greater movement of individuals who are deemed to be at lower risk,” the state said in a statement Wednesday morning.

Chapman added in the same statement that “not everyone who has been to an Ebola-affected area should be considered high-risk. This order will allow health officers to determine, for those coming into California, who is most at risk for developing this disease, and to contain any potential spread of infectious disease by responding to those risks appropriately.”

Failure to comply with a quarantine order can result in a civil penalty, imprisonment or a fine.

Who gets quarantined and who doesn’t became a national flash point after Maine resident and Doctors Without Borders nurse Kaci Hickox spent three days in an isolation tent at a New Jersey hospital after returning from Sierra Leone even though she showed no symptoms of the disease.

On Wednesday the nurse clashed with Maine public health officials after saying publicly that she did not intend to obey a 21-day quarantine order because she considered it unnecessary.

Maine’s health commissioner countered Wednesday that state law enforcement would arrest the nurse if she left her home and her legal team fired back that they would take the matter to court if necessary.

http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2014/...la-cdph-order/