WASHINGTON, October 31 (RIA Novosti) – Mandatory quarantine for US healthcare workers, returning from Ebola-hit West African countries "feeds panic" and this extra precaution needs to be re-evaluated, experts told RIA Novosti.
"These mandatory quarantines are actually fueled by the panic and they're actually feeding the panic and it's kind of like a vicious cycle," a Senior Associate at the Center for Health Security at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Amesh Adalja said Thursday.
Adalja said that issuing mandatory quarantine is a last resort public health measure that some US states are implementing without considering the levels of Ebola exposure of each returning healthcare worker.
On Monday, the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) introduced a new set of guidelines that individualized recommendations for how states should treat travelers based on their level of exposure to Ebola ranging from "high risk," and "some risk," to "no identified risk."
Kristi Koenig, a Professor of Emergency Medicine at the University of California at Irvine says that although US state officials are trying their best to protect the public from Ebola, issuing mandatory quarantine comes with consequences.
"I think that they [US state governors] were trying to do their job to protect the public health and they thought that quarantine would be a reasonable action, but I think that these kinds of things can have unintended consequences," Koenig said.
"As we've seen, it will probably lead to fewer people willing to volunteer, these healthcare workers are not being treated like hero's, they're being treated like people, who are being locked up against their will," Koenig added.
Senior Associate at the Center for Health Security at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Amesh Adalja confirms that US states should follow more carefully the recommendations of the CDC guidelines before implementing polices based on the public's fears.
"The American public is demanding these quarantines and you're seeing governors responding to that public sentiment," Adalja said.
On Wednesday, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel signed an order to place all US troops returning from Ebola-stricken West African countries into a mandatory 21-day quarantine monitoring program upon returning to the United States.
Over 4,900 people have died from the current Ebola outbreak, with more than 13,700 confirmed, probable, and suspected cases of the virus.
