U.S. ambassador says she's self-monitoring for Ebola
UNITED NATIONS -- The U.S. ambassador, who has just returned from a visit to the countries worst-affected by Ebola, says she is self-monitoring for the virus and that federal guidelines are sufficient.
Samantha Power on Friday praised the United States response to the outbreak in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea and called on other countries to do more.
Power, who arrived late Thursday at a New York City airport, has been openly critical of the quarantine restrictions some U.S. states have struggled to put in place as fear spreads over the worst outbreak of the disease in history.
She tweeted a photo of herself having her temperature taken at the airport on arrival:
Back from W Africa. Part of standard CDC protocol—screened @ airport on arrival; will monitor/report health for 21day pic.twitter.com/HUkDYTVj0M
— Samantha Power (@AmbassadorPower) October 31, 2014
In other Ebola-related developments:
- A Maine judge on Friday rejected a bid by state health officials to restrict the movement of nurse Kaci Hickox, who defied a state quarantine for medical workers who have treated Ebola patients.
- CBS News correspondent David Martin reports that the Pentagon decision to order all troops returning from West Africa into 21-day quarantine did not include Department of Defense civilians. They will be governed by a separate policy which allows them to follow CDC guidelines - in other words, no mandatory quarantine - although they will be offered the option of going into "controlled monitoring" if they choose.
- Ebola fears infected a medical conference on the subject. Louisiana state health officials told thousands of doctors planning to attend a tropical-diseases meeting this weekend in New Orleans to stay away if they have been to certain African countries or have had contact with an Ebola patient in the last 21 days.
- Liberia is making some progress in containing the outbreak, while Sierra Leone is "in a crisis situation which is going to get worse," the top anti-Ebola officials in the two countries said.
- The World Bank announced it will give an additional $100 million to help bring in more foreign health workers. That raises the money it has given to the fight to $500 million.