NYC Tests Doctor Who Was In West Africa For Ebola

[Webster]

Reuters: New York tests doctor who was in West Africa for Ebola

(Reuters) - A physician with Doctors without Borders who recently returned from West Africa is being tested for Ebola at a New York City hospital, health officials said on Thursday, setting off fresh fears about the spread of the virus.

The doctor developed a fever and gastrointestinal symptoms, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene said in a statement. Preliminary results of the Ebola testing were expected in the next 12 hours.

The doctor was identified as Craig Spencer, who lives in Manhattan's Harlem neighborhood, according to New York City Councilman Mark Levine.

"A person in New York City, who recently worked with Doctors Without Borders in one of the Ebola-affected countries in West Africa, notified our office this morning to report having developed a fever," Doctors Without Borders said in a statement.

The doctor reported the fever immediately, and Doctors Without Borders said it immediately notified the city health department.

The patient, who returned to the United States within the past 21 days, is being treated at Bellevue Hospital, the city's health department said.

Twenty-one days is the maximum incubation period for Ebola.

Bellevue is one of the eight hospitals statewide designated earlier this month as part of an Ebola preparedness plan.

Spencer's Facebook page showed a photo of him clad in protective gear. It shows he went to Guinea around Sept. 18 and then to Brussels on October 16.

A woman at the Bellevue Hospital information desk identified herself to a staff member as the fianceé of the patient. She appeared very agitated and declined to comment.

The health department said it was tracing all of the patient's contacts to identify anyone who may be at potential risk. It said the patient had been transported by a specially trained unit wearing protective gear.

News of the latest potential Ebola case in the United States caused stocks to pare gains late in the trading session.

"It threw a little scare into the market," said Michael James, managing director of equity trading at Wedbush Securities in Los Angeles. [.N]

Fears about the spread of Ebola, which has killed nearly 4,900 people, largely in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, have mounted since the first person diagnosed with the disease in the United States, a Liberian man who had flown to Texas, was hospitalized in Dallas last month.

The man, Thomas Eric Duncan, died on Oct. 8, and two nurses who treated him became infected with the virus. A task force has been set up following missteps in handling the case.

An employee at Bellevue said the hospital's staff had been trained and was well prepared for the possible case.

"Everybody's calm, said Maria Delgado, 60, a clerk with the radiology department, outside the midtown Manhattan hospital.

"To be quite honest, you really don't know who walks in there anyway," she said.

The virus is spread through direct contact with bodily fluids from an infected person and is not airborne.

The United States this week began requiring travelers coming from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea to enter through one of five airports conducting increased screening for the virus. It also is directing those travelers to check in with health officials every day and report their temperatures and any Ebola symptoms for 21 days.

The U.N. World Health Organization said on Thursday that such arrival screening may have "a limited effect" in stopping the virus from spreading but whether it adds anything to exit screening from affected countries is a decision for governments.

President Barack Obama has opposed a travel ban on people coming from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. Some Republican and Democratic lawmakers have called for such a ban.

In Connecticut, officials placed six West Africans who recently arrived in the United States under quarantine for possible Ebola exposure. The family which arrived on Saturday will be watched for 21 days, Connecticut state health authorities said. Officials have yet to say where the family came from.

West Africans have planned to march to the United Nations headquarters from Times Square on Thursday to raise awareness and fight the stigma and discrimination stemming from the disease.

Thoughts?

 

[Webster]

...scratch potential case of Ebola and make that a confirmed case:

A doctor just back from West Africa has preliminarily tested positive for the Ebola virus at New York City's Bellevue Hospital, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Thursday night.

"There is no reason for New Yorkers to be alarmed," the mayor said at a news conference with Gov. Andrew Cuomo and medical officials. "We've been preparing for months for the threat of Ebola with clear and strong protocols that were scrupulously followed in this instance."

"We were hoping that it didn't happen, but we were also realistic," the governor said. "This is New York. People come to New York. People come to New York's airports."

The city health commissioner, Mary T Bassett, said the doctor, identified as Craig Spencer, was believed to have come into contact with his fiancée and two close friends. They were in the process of being quarantined, but they weren't yet being tested for Ebola because they were well and were showing no symptoms, she said.

Spencer arrived Friday at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport from Guinea, where he was working with Doctors Without Borders, Bassett said. He began feeling tired on Tuesday, but his first actual symptoms — a fever — didn't appear until Thursday between 10 and 11 a.m. ET, she said.

Spencer is known to have taken trips on three subway lines — the A, the 1 and the L — and on Wednesday he visited The Gutter, a bowling alley in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, Basset said.

"At the time he was at the bowling alley, he had had no fever," said Bassett, who stressed repeatedly that Ebola can be contracted only from an infected patient's bodily fluids. She said there was no danger to anyone in public places or on the transit system.

Spencer caught a lift from ride-sharing service Uber Wednesday, the company said. Uber said in a statement it contacted the CDC and local health officials and both the company and driver were assured "neither our driver partner nor any of his subsequent passengers are at risk."

As a doctor, Spencer "was very alert to signs and symptoms of Ebola, coming from a place where Ebola is truly ravaging the population," Bassett said. He spent most of his time in his apartment, limiting his contact with people and taking his temperature twice a day, she said.

After the first symptoms emerged Thursday morning, Spencer was tested, and one of the tests returned positive, authorities said. Samples were being tested by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to confirm the diagnosis. Several members of the CDC's rapid response team were on their way to New York on Thursday night, and others were to arrive Friday morning, a federal official told NBC News.

President Barack Obama was briefed on the case Thursday evening by Homeland Security Adviser Lisa Monaco.

In a statement, New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center said that Spencer was part of its staff and that he had not been to work at the hospital since returning to the U.S.

The last two U.S. Ebola patients, nurses Amber Vinson and Nina Pham, are recovering in special biocontainment units — Pham at the National Institutes of Health in the Maryland suburbs of Washington and Vinson at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta.(NBC News)