It has been confirmed that the physician who recently returned to New York from West Africa has tested positive for Ebola virus disease, officials have announced
33-year-old , a resident in Harlem neighbourhood is reported to have been taken to an NY hospital on Thursday, October 24, 2014, after displaying symptoms consistent with those caused by the deadly virus. This included a high pitched fever of 39.5C.
A preliminary test conducted on Spencer (who is said to have returned from Guinea, a republic in western Africa, on October 17) confirms he has the virus. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will carry out further tests to confirm the result.
Officials at a press conference at Bellevue Hospital on October 23, stated that they are currently monitoring four people with whom Spencer has had contact with. They include - his fiancée, Morgan Dixon, and two friends (who have already been quarantined) while the fourth person, a taxi driver, is not considered to be at risk.
“I know the word Ebola right now can spread fear just by the sound of the word,” said New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo at a press conference. “Ebola is not an airborne illness, it is contracted when a person is extremely ill and symptomatic.”
Officials urged residents of New York not to panic, and drew a comparison with the response to an outbreak in Dallas, Texas, where the city’s principal hospital bungled its initial contacts with an Ebola patient who later died, Thomas Duncan.