Aid workers say Canada’s Ebola quarantine hinders response, hope it won’t be extended

Aid workers say Canada's Ebola quarantine hinders response, hope it won't be extended

TORONTO – The night before Lily-Madeleine Seguin was set to book her flight to the Democratic Republic of Congo in late May, the Canadian government announced a three-week quarantine for travellers returning from the Ebola-stricken country. Seguin, a public health promotion adviser with Oxfam's global humanitarian team, had all of her final sign-offs and approvals green-lit, and her booster shots were updated. She was ready to fly out two days later for a two-month deployment when she heard the news.

It came as a shock to Seguin, who has been a part of previous Ebola outbreak responses in the DRC, including an 11-month deployment in 2018. But she never went. There wouldn't be enough time to quarantine between her return and the beginning of a sabbatical she had scheduled months before.

Now, three months later, the government's mandatory 21-day quarantine is set to expire on Aug. 29. As the outbreak rages at an unprecedented speed, Seguin said she hopes Canadian officials will reverse course.

"To me, we're not stepping up in the way that we should be as a country that does have the ability to do it and changing the quarantine regulations is a low-stakes way of being able to do it," Seguin said.

She is not the only one who feels this way. Canadian humanitarian aid workers say their ability to respond to the outbreak has been stifled by the country's long quarantine period, forcing some to stay home or cut their deployments short. They say an extension of the mandatory 21-day quarantine for Canadians and permanent residents returning from the DRC, Uganda or South Sudan could be detrimental to the outbreak response.

The World Health Organization has said this is the fastest-growing Ebola outbreak in history, on track to be the deadliest, with Africa's top public health agency reporting more than 2,500 deaths out of more than 5,000 infections.

Canada's government said it's currently reviewing the restrictions and latest evidence alongside international partners and will announce a decision on next steps before the expiration date next week.

Impact on aid workers

At least 11 Canadians with highly valuable expertise have had to cancel their assignments with MSF, also known as Doctors Without Borders, as of Aug. 20 because of the quarantine measures, the organization says. Twenty-three Canadians in total have been a part of MSF's Ebola response in the DRC.

Adam Houston, medical policy and advocacy adviser at MSF Canada, said the quarantine measures have affected more than just the Ebola response, impacting Canadians' ability to participate in other humanitarian efforts.

Mylene Ratelle, health promotion manager at MSF, had to return home to quarantine for three weeks before the start of the fall semester, a report from The Canadian Press noted. She was back to pandemic-era baking instead of contact tracing in the DRC.

Science vs. fear

Ebola does not spread through the air or casual contact, but through bodily fluids like blood, vomit and semen. People generally do not spread the Ebola virus before they get sick, which can take two to 21 days after infection.

Roojin Habibi, research director at the Global Strategy Lab, said Canada's travel restrictions go against expert guidance from the World Health Organization and are based on fear, not science.

Karine LeBlanc, senior communications adviser at Health Canada, said the temporary measures are intended to reduce the likelihood of importation and the risk of potential spread to others in Canada.

The mandatory quarantine applies to Canadians returning from South Sudan and Uganda, though South Sudan has not reported a case of Ebola in this outbreak. Uganda's ministry of health declared its Ebola outbreak over on July 28, after 20 people were infected, including two deaths.

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control advises travellers returning from the DRC or Uganda to self-monitor for symptoms and only quarantine if they had a high-risk exposure.

Context and funding

When the measures were announced in May, the approaching FIFA World Cup was pegged as a key reason for the strict rules, aligning with co-hosting countries, the United States and Mexico. Canada's health minister said at the time that "it's not a question of science," but of protecting people from the lasting trauma of past outbreaks.

The Canadian government has committed $8 million to support the fight against the outbreak, compared to more than $110 million in financial assistance during the 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa.

As the quarantine expiration date approaches, aid workers hope the government will reconsider. Seguin's words capture the sentiment: "Changing the quarantine regulations is a low-stakes way of being able to step up."