U.S. nurse released from Ebola isolation

ATLANTA —A nurse who fueled Ebola fears by flying to Cleveland after being infected by her dying patient was released Tuesday from a hospital isolation unit, where doctors defended her as a courageous front-line caregiver.

Another nurse, held for days in a medical tent in New Jersey after volunteering in West Africa, was in an undisclosed location in Maine, objecting to quarantine rules as overly restrictive.

While world leaders appeal for more doctors and nurses on the front lines of the Ebola epidemic, health care workers in the United States are finding themselves on the defensive. Lawyers now represent both Amber Vinson, who contracted the virus while caring for a Liberian visitor to Texas, and Kaci Hickox, who is challenging the mandatory quarantines some states are imposing on anyone who came into contact with Ebola victims.

The virus is still spreading faster than the response, killing nearly half of the more than 10,000 people it has infected in West Africa. World Bank President Jim Yong Kim said Tuesday at least 5,000 more health workers are urgently needed in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, travelling with him in Africa, said mandatory quarantines for health care workers, Ebola-related travel restrictions and border closings are not the answer. The Pentagon announced Tuesday the Joint Chiefs of Staff recommended to Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel that he require all U.S. troops returning from Ebola-fighting missions in West Africa to be kept in supervised isolation for 21 days.