No doubt about it, everyone will say he is overreacting and trying to get attention, but Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio is taking action to prevent a detention officer returning to work after a three week-long visit with family members who reside in the Ebola stricken West African nation of Sierra Leone.
Arpaio says he is making the move in order to protect his employees and inmates.
According to Arpaio, the Sheriff’s officer, who travels there annually, has worked for the Sheriff’s Office since 2006. He is scheduled to return to duty tomorrow on Wednesday, October 22 at one of the jails where over 700 inmates are housed and 100 employees work.
This employee has been in Sierra Leone, one of the three African nations where nearly 4000 have already died from the growing Ebola epidemic.
According to the Sheriff, the employee’s return flight route yesterday brought him from Freeport, Sierra Leone to Brussels, Belgium where he was cleared to fly by Center for Disease Control (CDC) officials. He then went on to Washington Dulles airport where again his temperature was taken before being questioned and cleared by CDC authorities to return to Phoenix. CDC gave him a thermometer and told to self-monitor for the next three weeks.
Arpaio says the employee was contacted today and agreed to remain home for the 21 day incubation period during which time he will be on administrative leave.
The Sheriff says he will be allowed to return to work after November 12, 2014 assuming he shows no signs of the virus.
Chief of Detention Mike Olson says, “The decision to bar this employee from the jails was made by Sheriff Arpaio to protect employees and inmates alike. A few employees voiced some concerned to their supervisors indicating that they may refuse to work if this employee is allowed in the jails during the incubation period. We cannot afford to have a work disruption nor can we risk even the slightest potential of introducing Ebola into the jails.”
While Maricopa County health officials are working on an Ebola protocol, Arpaio says jails pose a unique problem.
“Corrections officials throughout the United States have a growing concern about how to deal with Ebola should the virus gain more traction here,” says Arpaio. “Jails are a unique environment. They are a closed system. Inmates cannot simply leave because they fear a disease outbreak. Jails have to react quickly and definitely to prevent the possibility of transmission.”
Arpaio says some veteran employees of the Sheriff’s Office have said they remember long ago when no AIDS protocols existed in the jails. Arpaio claims that at that time, an officer rendered mouth to mouth resuscitation on an AIDS stricken inmate. The officer later developed the disease and died.
“Fortunately AIDS no longer poses the risk it once did,” Arpaio says. “One day that may also be true of the Ebola virus. Until then, it is incumbent upon all of us to do whatever we can to stem the spread of this disease – even at the risk of being criticized for over reacting.”
In view of the situation, Arpaio says employees who wish to travel to West African nations stricken by Ebola they may do so as there are no current travel restrictions. However, if they plan to return to work anywhere in the Sheriff’s Office, they will be placed on administrative leave for 21 days after their return.