Ebola: NBC-TV Crew Ordered To Mandatory Isolation

Dr. Nancy Snyderman

The New Jersey Health Department has issued a mandatory quarantine order for Dr. Nancy Snyderman and the other members of an NBC crew who were exposed to a cameraman with Ebola. The mandatory order was issued after a voluntary 21-day isolation agreement was violated.

According to planetprinceton.com, a spokeswoman for the state health department told The Associated Press that Snyderman and her crew remain symptom-free and that there is no reason for concern of exposure to the deadly virus to the community. Citing privacy concerns, the spokeswoman would not give further details, including who violated the agreement and how the state learned of a violation.

Snyderman and her crew were reporting in Liberia about the Ebola outbreak in West Africa with Ashoka Mukpo, a freelance cameraman who was infected with the disease. He is now being treated in Omaha, Nebraska. The director of the Nebraska Medical Center’s isolation unit said Friday that Mukpo’s condition was slightly improved.

After Mukpo came down with the disease on Oct. 1, the head of NBC announced in a letter that Snyderman and the rest of her crew would voluntarily be isolated for 21 days.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, people exposed to the virus develop symptoms two to 21 days after their exposure. The risk of exposure for other members of the NBC crew was considered to be very low.

Several Planet Princeton readers reported seeing Snyderman in public this week. One reader allegedly saw Snyderman sitting in her car outside of the Peasant Grill in Hopewell Boro Thursday afternoon. A reader reported that a man who was with her got out of the car and went inside the restaurant to pick up a take-out order. Another man was in the back seat of her black Mercedes. Snyderman had sunglasses on and had her hair pulled back, the reader said.