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 The worst Ebola outbreak on record has killed at least 4,900 people
and perhaps as many as 15,000, mostly in Liberia, Sierra Leone and
Guinea, according to World Health Organization figures.
Only four Ebola cases have been diagnosed so far in the United
States: Thomas Eric Duncan, who died on Oct. 8 at Texas Health
Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas, two nurses who treated him there
and the latest case, Dr. Craig Spencer.
Spencer, 33, who worked for Doctors Without Borders, was taken to
Bellevue Hospital on Thursday, six days after returning from Guinea,
renewing public jitters about transmission of the disease in the
United States and rattling financial markets.
Three people who had close contact with Spencer were quarantined for
observation - one of them, his fiancée, at the same hospital - but
all were still healthy, officials said.
Mayor Bill de Blasio and Governor Andrew Cuomo sought to reassure
New Yorkers they were safe, even though Spencer had ridden subways,
taken a taxi and visited a bowling alley between his return from
Guinea and the onset of his symptoms.
"There is no reason for New Yorkers to be alarmed," de Blasio said
at a news conference at Bellevue. "Being on the same subway car or
living near someone with Ebola does not in itself put someone at
risk."
Health officials emphasized that the virus is not airborne but is
spread only through direct contact with bodily fluids from an
infected person who is showing symptoms.
After taking his own temperature twice daily since his return,
Spencer reported running a fever and experiencing gastrointestinal
symptoms for the first time early on Thursday. He was then taken
from his Manhattan apartment to Bellevue by a special team wearing
protective gear, city officials said.
He was not feeling sick and would not have been contagious before
Thursday morning, city Health Commissioner Mary Travis Bassett said.
Owners of the bowling alley he visited said they had voluntarily
closed the establishment for the day as a precaution. But the driver
of the ride-sharing taxi Spencer took was not considered to be at
risk, and officials insisted the three subway lines he rode before
falling ill remained safe.
"We consider that it is extremely unlikely, the probability being
close to nil, that there would be any problem related to his taking
the subway system," Bassett said.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will
confirm Spencer's test results within 24 hours, she said.
RESIDENTS, INVESTORS RATTLED
His case brings to nine the total number of people treated for the
disease in U.S. hospitals since August, but just two - Duncan's
nurses - contracted the virus in the United States.
The New York case surfaced days after dozens of people who were
exposed to Duncan emerged from the 21-day incubation period with
clean bills of health, easing a national sense of crisis that took
hold when his nurses, Nina Pham and Amber Vinson, became infected.
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"I'm really concerned," said Kiki Howard, 26, a student who lives on
the block next to Spencer's home in Harlem. "There's a school at the
end of the block. My main concern is for the safety of the
children."
The health commissioner said Spencer's apartment was isolated and
sealed off, noting, "I see no reason for the tenants in the
apartment building to be concerned."
Still, there were signs that the latest Ebola case had unnerved
investors. S&P futures fell 9 points or 0.45 percent. The dollar
slipped against the euro and the U.S. 10-year Treasury rose,
lowering its yield to about 2.24 percent.
The city health commissioner said Spencer completed work in Guinea
on Oct. 12 and arrived at John F. Kennedy International Airport in
New York on Oct. 17. His Facebook page, which included a photo of
him clad in protective gear, said he stopped over in Brussels.
Spencer has specialized in international emergency medicine at
Columbia University-New York Presbyterian Hospital in New York City
since 2011.
Columbia, in a statement, said he has not been to work nor seen any
patients since his return.
A woman named Morgan Dixon was identified on Spencer’s Facebook page
as his fiancée. Her Linked-In profile said she worked in nonprofit
management and international development with the Hope Program, a
career development agency for homeless and welfare-dependent adults.
The CDC did not name Spencer but said he "participated in the
enhanced screening" instituted for all travelers returning from
Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone this month at five major U.S.
airports - including Kennedy.
The doctor "went through multiple layers of screening and did not
have a fever or other symptoms of illness", the CDC said in a
statement.
(Additional reporting by Natasja Sheriff, Barbara Goldberg, Jonathan
Allen and Laila Kearney in New York; Writing by Steve Gorman;
Editing by Louise Ireland)
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