The 5-year-old boy who was treated for a respiratory illness at Bellevue Hospital after testing negative for Ebola was released from the hospital Thursday.
The boy no longer needs to be hospitalized but will be actively monitored along with his mother and a sibling, according to the city Health Department and Health and Hospitals Corp. The family had returned from Guinea within the last 21 days.
Meanwhile, the city is monitoring 117 people for signs of Ebola after most of them arrived since Oct.11 from Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, the West African countries ravaged by the deadly disease, according to the mayor’s office.
Active monitoring means the state or a local public health authority establishes regular communication with the individuals, rather than relying on them to self-monitor and report symptoms.
“It ensures that health officials can respond rapidly in case a person who is at risk becomes ill, so they can be isolated and evaluated before they become contagious,” city spokesman Marti Adams said in a statement.
The list includes Bellevue Hospital workers caring for Dr. Craig Spencer, New York City’s first and only confirmed case of Ebola. He remains in serious but stable condition.
Craig, who treated patients in Guinea, tested positive positive last week after returning to his home in Harlem.
Also being monitored are the workers who took Spencer to the hospital, the lab workers who handled his blood, and his fiancée and two friends.
All of those on the list have shown any symptoms, the city said. They are being monitored “out of an abundance of caution,” Adams said in the statement.
“The number of people being monitored is subject to change on a daily basis as more travelers from the countries affected by Ebola arrive in the city, as travelers leave the city and as the 21-day incubation period ends for people already being monitored,” he said.
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