New Ebola quarantine procedures might discourage aid workers from volunteering

 Dr. Rick Sacra, who contracted Ebola in Liberia and was flown back to the United States to be treated in September, said he believed that the new rules in New Jersey and New York would reduce the number of people willing to volunteer their time to treat Ebola patients. 

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He said many doctors and nurses who volunteered would spend about three weeks in Africa and then return to their regular jobs. The requirement that they be quarantined at home upon their return “will effectively double the burden on those people, on the loss of productive time,” Dr. Sacra said.

“They are the authorities,” he added. “They have their rationale. They sometimes can’t base their decisions only on the science.”

Part of the issue, several doctors said in interviews on Friday, is that there is no standard protocol for health care workers returning from Ebola-affected countries. Some doctors returned to seeing patients, while others were told to stay away from their hospitals in large metropolitan areas for 21 days, which is believed to be the maximum incubation period for the virus.  

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