Isolation can take emotional toll on volunteers at risk of Ebola

LOS ANGELES TIMES by  Erwin Brown                                               March 2, 2015
Dr. Matthew Waxman recently returned to Los Angeles after spending nearly two months in the town of Lunsar, Sierra Leone, where he treated Ebola patients at an isolated medical facility.

He and colleagues toiled in harsh and stressful conditions, caring for people "the best we could." In the quiet stretches between intense bursts of drama and terror, they talked about the reception that would await them at home — at times with a degree of dread, since some returning medical workers have had less than enthusiastic welcomes....

Some officials called for mandatory quarantines for returning medical workers. Others wondered whether such restrictions would stigmatize volunteers and discourage them from heading to Africa, where they were sorely needed to stop the spread of Ebola. In a report released Thursday, a presidential bioethics panel cited such concerns and urged public health organizations to "employ the least restrictive means necessary" based on scientific evidence.

...For the 41-year-old Waxman, who just over two weeks ago was treating patients at a facility operated by the relief organization International Medical Corps, waiting out Ebola's incubation period has been a "surreal" but quiet process of readjusting to semi-normal life.
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http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-ebola-monitoring-explainer-20150302-story.html