N.Y., N.J. still developing screening process

“I am scared about how health care workers will be treated at airports when they declare that they have been fighting Ebola in West Africa,” Hickox writes. “I am scared that, like me, they will arrive and see a frenzy of disorganization, fear and, most frightening, quarantine.”

In announcing the quarantine mandates, New York and New Jersey said they will work to establish an interview and screening process to determine a person’s risk level by considering where they traveled and their level of exposure.

“Depending on the risk level, a person could require mandatory 21-day quarantine, or at a government-regulated facility,” New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said. “Low-risk would be regularly monitored for temperature and symptoms. Others will have a protocol developed to fit their particular circumstances.”

New York’s first Ebola patient is Craig Spencer, a 33-year-old emergency physician being treated in an isolation unit at Bellevue Hospital Center after he tested positive for virus Thursday. He recently returned from Guinea where he volunteered for international health care group Doctors without Borders.

“Our region is a dense region,” Cuomo said. “A ride on a train can affect hundreds of people. Several weeks of normal activity can affect several thousand.”

While there have been no confirmed Ebola cases in Illinois, Gov. Pat Quinn said he was enacting the measure because quarantines are “too important” to be voluntary.

Morse said he expects other states will enact similar rules, adding the federal government might also get on board to take action as fear of the virus spreads.

Still, the measures could provide peace of mind to a wary public, said Albert Wu, a professor of health policy and management and an attending physician at Johns Hopkins University.

“I suspect that this mandatory quarantine wouldn’t add very much except for providing reassurance for people panicked by the idea,” he said.