Abstract
On October 29, 2014, 4 days before the annual meeting of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH) to be held in New Orleans, LA, meeting registrants received an e-mail letter from the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals stating "we have requested that any individuals that will be traveling to Louisiana following a trip to the West African countries of Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone or have had contact with an Ebola-infected individual remain in a self-quarantine for the 21 days following their relevant travel history…we see no use in you traveling to New Orleans to simply be confined to your room." This communication made it clear that those recently in countries experiencing the 2014 Ebola epidemic would not be able to participate in the meeting. The ASTMH sent their own communication stating that the Society did not agree with the State's policy, but had no choice but to abide. However inconvenient and upsetting this decision might have been, what really matters transcends the mere disturbance of long-planned schedules. More broadly, we lost on five levels.
