U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has directed an American woman to remain in quarantine against her will and contrary to medical guidance, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.
The woman, Angela Perryman, 47, is one of 18 Americans who were placed in quarantine at a Nebraska facility after Andes hantavirus cases were identified aboard a cruise ship earlier this year.
A Department of Health and Human Services official told Reuters that the 42-day monitoring period will be completed at midnight on June 21. The remaining passengers at the Nebraska quarantine unit are expected to depart on June 22. That 42-day window began when the group returned to the United States on May 10, the official said.
Eight U.S. residents from the hantavirus-affected MV Hondius were released to their home states after three weeks of observation at the National Quarantine Unit at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, according to the facility. Ten others continued to be monitored.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had previously requested that all individuals from the cruise ship remain at the quarantine unit through May 31.
The New York Times reported that some passengers were permitted to complete their quarantine at home through June 22, as long as local health authorities agreed to have law enforcement or a community health worker check on them. The World Health Organization recommends a 42-day monitoring and quarantine period for high-risk contacts following exposure.
Perryman wanted to return to her home in Florida, but state officials there declined to provide the required monitoring, according to both the Wall Street Journal and the Times. The CDC said during a quarantine hearing that she should be permitted to return home for the rest of the quarantine period, and a CDC medical review noted that her chances of developing symptoms were decreasing over time, the Journal reported.
Perryman told both publications that a copy of an order from Kennedy was slipped under her room door, informing her she could not go home. The order stated that despite the doctor’s findings, Perryman was reasonably believed to have been infected with or exposed to the disease, according to the Journal.
Reuters was unable to reach Perryman at the facility by phone.
