New York City doctor tests positive for Ebola

NEW YORK

A doctor who recently worked in one of the Ebola affected countries in West Africa has become New York City’s first diagnosed case, according to preliminary test results reported Thursday by U.S. media.

Craig Spencer worked with the medical humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders, but the organization declined to name the country in which he was working. The New York Times reports, however, that he recently returned from Guinea, one of the three countries hardest hit by the current outbreak of the virus. Liberia and Sierra Leone have also been hard hit by Ebola.

The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene announced in a press statement that Spencer was being treated at Bellevue Hospital, designated for the isolation and treatment of potential Ebola patients by the city and state.

Another test will be conducted to confirm the initial results, according to media reports.

Spencer used the city’s subway system Wednesday night to travel from Manhattan to Brooklyn, according to the newspaper, and a team from the city’s health department began to trace all of his contacts to identify anyone who may be at potential risk, the health department said.

Ebola, a contagious disease for which there is no known cure, has killed more than 4,800 people and infected more than 9,900, according to the latest figures from the World Health Organization.

Symptoms include a fever of 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius) or higher, headache, nausea and diarrhea or abdominal pain.

Victims can take up to 21 days to show symptoms and become infectious, and the virus is spread by direct contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person.

New York City’s case marks the fourth time a patient has been diagnosed with Ebola in the U.S. In late September, Liberian citizen Thomas Eric Duncan became the first person to test positive for the virus in the U.S. Two nurses who attended to him were infected with the disease.

www.aa.com.tr/en