Australia has become the centre of an international feud over the best way to manage Ebola outbreaks that have affected communities in Africa. They drew adverse criticism from health workers and from the human rights organisation Amnesty International by closing their doors to anyone from Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea and they have completely suspended their immigration programme from those areas, including their humanitarian aid programme.

This is a move that Amnesty International says will trap vulnerable people in an infected area without the support they need from first world countries.

Very tough and intrusive measures with healthcare workers are being employed by Australia so that any doctor wishing to treat people in affected areas will be placed in quarantine on their return to Australia.  Officials from the country say that medics will be asked to submit to quarantine but in reality this will be forced. If immigration staff believe the medic to be an infection risk, they can seek a court order from the magistrate and detain them without consent.

Is Restriction of Movement a Civil Liberty Issue?

Understandably, human rights activists and worried members of the public from around the world have voiced concerns that these measures are overly draconian and amount to false imprisonment. Some believe that infectious disease outbreaks provide a mechanism for governments to take away more of our civil liberties. Certainly these fears are not unfounded as there laws in place from country to country that allow for the detainment of persons to prevent disease and also for the restriction of movements. The freedom to travel is an integral part of being able to live free and independent lives, so the idea that the right to be free may be overturned in an outbreak reads like something from George Orwell’s ‘1984’.

The usual premise of informed consent does not apply in cases where there is a disease epidemic – where medical interventions – for instance, vaccinations or treatment for TB, may be given even in the absence of consent or a person refusing to submit may be detained for an indefinite period determined by the authorities. Certainly, these types of preventative measures could be described as the over-reach of government agencies.

Sierra Leone Angered

Sierra Leone is angered by Australia’s ban on their entry into the country, accusing them of being discriminatory. The Information Minister Alpha Kanu said that safety precautions had been put in place at Sierra Leone’s Freetown Airport and that these had prevented anyone with Ebola from leaving the country, so preventing everyone from leaving was unnecessary.

Cooking up a Panic

Ugandan spokesman Ofwono Opondo accused western countries of creating a mass panic about Ebola on an international level that would spread to medical teams and prevent them from treating people with the disease. Strict quarantine rules may already deter some medical professionals from volunteering to help in affected countries. Travellers from first world countries may have been needlessly scared about Ebola, whether it will affect them or whether their health insurance covers Ebola. This is despite the fact that they have an extremely slim chance of ever getting Ebola.

What should be done?

Isolation of people who have contracted Ebola and their close contacts – rather than isolating entire nations – is a tried and tested means of limiting disease spread while still respecting the personal freedoms of those who are well and maintaining good international race relations.

The first line of defence against any disease and one that Florence Nightingale used to transform patient safety is hand washing. Hand washing has reduced illness and disease and made hospital care a lot safer. If people wash their hands when touching certain surfaces and especially if visiting sick people in hospital, even if they don’t touch them, this can minimise the chance of becoming ill.

Another important defence is to avoid contact with animals (particularly fruit bats and monkeys) as Ebola is caught from wild animals and then through body fluids of an infected person (such as blood or saliva). It can also spread via infected surfaces (such as handling infected sheets). All bedding and other items in a household with an infected person should be cleaned thoroughly.

Any close contact of the infected person should remain in the household and not mix with other people for three weeks as this is the incubation period for Ebola.

Recognising the symptoms of the disease is an important part o