New York City has been put on a high Ebola alert after a doctor, back from treating patients in West Africa, tested positive for the virus on Thursday, prompting the city authorities to mount a search for people who may have come into contact with him over the past several days.
The doctor, Craig Spencer, working with “Doctors Without Borders” among patients in Ebola-hit Guinea, had returned to New York on October 17, but started developing symptoms of fever, nausea and pain only on Thursday morning.
The fiancée of the 33-year-old doctor and two friends he was in contact with over the previous two days have been placed in isolation, but the authorities played down the possibility of the virus being passed on till his Ebola symptoms started manifesting themselves.
Reassuring New Yorkers that there is no cause for alarm, Mayor Bill de Blasio told a news conference: “Being on the same subway car or living near a person with Ebola does not in itself put someone at risk.” Since his return to New York, Spencer is known to have travelled by the metro system and used a taxi service. The places he visited included a bowling alley.
“We consider it extremely unlikely, the probability being close to nil, that there will be any problem related to his taking the subway system,” said New York City Health Commissioner Mary Bassett.
Even so, the city authorities ordered a search to “actively trace all of the patient’s contacts to identify anyone who may be at potential risk”, said a statement put out by the city health department.
Spencer is the first person to be diagnosed with Ebola in New York. The three previous cases – liberian national Thomas Eric Duncan and nurses Nina Pham and Amber Vinson – were all diagnosed with the virus at the Texas Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas. While Duncan died, the two nurses are reported to be recovering.
A fellow of international emergency medicine at New York Presbyterian Hospital and an instructor in clinical medicine at Columbia University, Spencer has been admitted to the Bellevue Hospital, one of eight New York State hospitals designated to treat Ebola patients.
Spencer told the city officials that he has been monitoring his temperature twice every day since his return to New York. Thursday morning was when it first spiked to as high as 103 degrees Fahrenheit.
Earlier this week, the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had announced that every airline passenger arriving from the three West African nations of liberia, Sierra leone and Guinea will be monitored by state and local health authorities for 21 days – the incubation period for Ebola.
There have been a total of nine cases of Ebola in the United States since the beginning of August.