A New York City doctor is the first city resident to contract Ebola after testing positive for the virus Thursday.
City Health Commissioner Dr. Mary Bassett says the test was conducted at the city’s public health lab and is expected to be confirmed at the CDC labs within the next 24 hours.
City Councilman Mark Levine and other city officials say the man is Dr. Craig Spencer.
Bassett says the man is 33 and worked with the international nonprofit Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in Guinea.
According to Bassett, he completed his work on October 12 and left Guinea on October 14. He traveled via Europe and arrived at JFK Airport on October 17.
Bassett says he was well without symptoms throughout his journey from Guinea to the United States and was also well when he arrived in the United States.
According to Bassett, he checked his temperature twice a day since he departed from Guinea.
Bassett says the first symptoms reported by the doctor were a fever sometime between 10 a.m. and 11 a.m. Thursday morning, and MSF notified the city’s Department of Health.
He was transported in a specialized ambulance from his apartment to Bellevue Hospital, where he is currently in an isolation unit.
According to Bassett, before he became sick, the patient did leave his apartment. She says he went on a three-mile jog, visited the High Line, may have visited a restaurant and also rode the A, 1 and L trains in the New York City subway system.
He also went to The Gutter, a bowling alley in Williamsburg, Wednesday with a couple of friends, according to Bassett, who says he did bowl. She says he was not symptomatic at the time.
Bassett says the doctor has been in contact with his fiancee and two friends. She says all three of those contacts are healthy and are being quarantined.
The driver of an Uber car that the doctor took had no direct physical contact with him and is not considered to be at risk, according to Bassett.
It’s important to remember that Ebola is very difficult to catch.
Health officials say the virus is only spread through close and direct contact with the bodily fluids of a person who’s infected.
The fluids most likely to carry the virus are blood, stool and vomit.
Health officials also say Ebola is only contagious once a person exhibits symptoms, not before.
Initial symptoms of the virus include fever, fatigue, sore throat and headache.
The Centers for Disease Control says the virus can live on a surface for up to six days, but the Associate Commissioner for the Department of Health says there are no known cases of Ebola being transmitted from a surface to a person.
There is no FDA-approved vaccine or medicine available for Ebola, although experimental vaccines and treatments for Ebola are under development.
Patients may receive intravenous fluids, including electrolytes, and doctors will work to maintain their oxygen status and blood pressure, and look out for any other infections.
Mayor Bill de Blasio asked New Yorkers not to panic at a news conference Thursday evening.
“We want to state at the outset: there is no reason for New Yorkers to be alarmed,” de Blasio said. “Ebola is an extremely hard disease to contract. It is transmitted only through contact with an infected person’s blood or other bodily fluids, not through bodily contact.”
He later added, “Being on the same subway car or living near a person with Ebola does not in itself put someone at risk.”
Bassett says the doctor’s apartment has been locked and entry-prohibited.
“The apartment is isolated. No one is going into the apartment,” she said. “We’ve ensured that nobody will enter. The super will not let anybody in. There’s no housekeepers expected to arrive. The apartment is locked and non-accessible.”
Despite DOH’s assurances, some neighbors NY1 spoke to said Spencer’s apartment has not been sealed off.
Video from Thursday afternoon shows police wearing gloves and masks walking outside the building on 147th Street and Broadway. Those items were then thrown in to a regular garbage can.
NY1′s Michael Herzenberg asked to speak with Spencer for a story on Monday, and on Tuesday, Herzenberg was told that he would pass now but might be willing to speak next week.
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