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Connecticut Governor Empowers Health Leaders to Quarantine Due to Ebola

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy has declared Ebola a public health emergency and authorized officials to quarantine anyone who may have been exposed to or infected with the virus.

(MCT) — Gov. Dannel P. Malloy has declared Ebola a public health emergency and authorized officials to quarantine anyone who may have been exposed to or infected with the virus.

Though Ebola has not been reported anywhere near Connecticut, the order is a precautionary measure and just one of several actions being taken to guard against the disease in the state.

"Right now, we have no reason to think that anyone in the state is infected or at risk of infection," Malloy said in a news release. "But it is essential to be prepared, and we need to have the authorities in place that will allow us to move quickly to protect public health if and when that becomes necessary."

With more than 7,000 people sickened and more than 3,000 killed by the virus in West Africa, fears spiked last week with the announcement that Ebola was found in a man who had traveled from Liberia to Dallas.

"The event in Texas really brought the reality of this home to everyone," said Dr. Matthew Cartter, state epidemiologist with the Connecticut Department of Public Health. "Before Texas, this was largely a hypothetical problem."

In Connecticut, the governor can authorize the state public health commissioner to order a quarantine and the commissioner may, in turn, authorize local health directors to order a quarantine. Quarantine orders are effective for up to 20 days. The DPH commissioner can issue subsequent orders if needed.

Cartter said it is fairly rare to quarantine people in Connecticut, and that the only recent incidents he was aware of involved cases of tuberculosis.

DPH spokesman William Gerrish said he was not aware of other states that had issued a public health emergency. However, he said, public health officials in several other states, including New Jersey, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont, have the power to quarantine people without being specifically authorized.

Other preventive measures


Malloy's declaration isn't the first time an Ebola-related quarantine has been mentioned in the state. Last week, two Yale University public health graduate students researching Ebola in Liberia were expected to return Saturday and quarantine themselves for 21 days. As yet, however, the students have not left Liberia and their "specific return date has not been determined," university spokeswoman Karen N. Pear said.

She said Yale officials are in regular contact with the students, and would provide updates as available.

"We want to reiterate that the students will continue to follow all CDC travel guidelines to assure their safety and that of their colleagues at Yale and of the public," Peart said in an email.

The governor's order also comes a day after the U.S. Coast Guard's Long Island Sound sector, which covers parts of New York and Connecticut, issued a bulletin stating that it will be contacting all vessels that have visited an Ebola-affected country in their last five ports of call.

People on those vessels will be asked whether anyone on board is experiencing Ebola symptoms, when the symptoms started, whether medical treatment had been administered and if anyone is planning on getting on or off the ship after it arrives in port.

Vessel masters are required to report any illness or death from a communicable disease to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 15 days before the ship's expected arrival in port.

A good call?


The quarantine order could be "panic-inducing," said Angela Mattie, associate professor and chairwoman of Quinnipiac University's department of health care management and organizational leadership.

"He's well within his rights to do this," Mattie said of Malloy's order. "Is it a good call? I think it's always better to be proactive than reactive."

Instead, she said, people should be made aware that the disease can only be spread through bodily fluids. "We need to be educated, as the public, as far as what the actual threat is," she said.

At Stamford Hospital, infectious disease director Michael Parry said the quarantine order is appropriate given the Ebola outbreak.

"In this situation, you need to be able to control communicable disease," he said.

Dana Marnane, spokeswoman for the state's largest health system, Yale-New Haven, said the hospitals in that chain have been on high alert.

"Yale-New Haven, Bridgeport and Greenwich Hospitals, as part of the Yale-New Haven Health System, have been screening patients for travel history to the countries known to be involved in the outbreak and plan on isolating those persons with Ebola-like symptoms," she said in a statement. "In addition, we have been reviewing and redistributing all appropriate protocols and procedures should there be a need to isolate a possible or confirmed case."

©2014 the Connecticut Post (Bridgeport, Conn.). Distributed by MCT Information Services.
 

A research manager at J-PAL North America
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