A doctor recently back from West Africa is in isolation in New York City’s Bellevue Hospital after testing positive for Ebola.
A second test to confirm the result will be done at the CDC’s labs in Atlanta, the agency said in a statement late Thursday night.
The doctor, Craig Spencer, MD, had returned from Guinea Oct. 17 and had passed through the enhanced screening protocol in place at JFK airport. He had no fever or symptoms during his trip or at the time of arrival, the CDC said.
Thursday, he reported fever and gastrointestinal symptoms for the first time to the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.
Spencer was taken to Bellevue in an ambulance by specially trained attendants wearing personal protective equipment, the department said in a statement.
Based on the his recent travel history, symptoms, and past work, the department decided to test for Ebola.
The CDC said three members of the Ebola Response Team were to arrive in New York Thursday night. The newly established team is intended to be deployed when an Ebola case is identified or when health officials strongly suspect a patient has Ebola but are waiting lab results.
But the agency said it already had several experts on hand who had been in the city assessing hospital readiness to receive Ebola patients, including Bellevue.
The CDC said the patient has been interviewed about his contacts and activities since arriving from Guinea and the city health department said earlier public health workers were already beginning to trace all of the patient’s contacts to identify any who might be at risk.
Meanwhile, the family of a Dallas nurse infected with Ebola says she's cleared the virus, according to news reports, but the Atlanta hospital where Amber Vinson is under care has not confirmed that.
Tests no longer detect the virus and Vinson has been cleared to leave isolation, according to a statement from her mother, Debra Berry, the reports say.
But a staff member at Emory University Hospital's communications department said late Thursday that the hospital is unable to confirm the reports.
Vinson was involved in the care of Thomas Eric Duncan, a Liberian who was diagnosed with Ebola in Dallas during a visit to the U.S. and succumbed to the virus Oct. 8. Vinson was the nurse who first noted a slight fever while in Ohio preparing to board a flight back to Dallas.
Also infected by exposure to Duncan was fellow nurse Nina Pham, who is currently under care in the NIH's Clinical Center in Bethesda, Md. An NIH spokesman said Thursday she remains in good condition.
The cases have raised concern against the backdrop of the epidemic raging in three West African countries, Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone, where the virus has infected at least 9,911 people and killed at least 4,868.
That crude case-fatality rate of about 50% is probably an underestimate because of incomplete data: According to the World Health organization, it is probably close to 70%.
But in hospitals in First-World countries, Ebola appears to be markedly less deadly than in West Africa.
Europe and the U.S. combined have had 17 cases, all but three of them originating in West Africa. Of those, four have died -- Duncan, two Spanish missionaries, and a U.N. medical worker who was treated in Germany.
Of the remaining 13, 10 have recovered and four -- Vinson, Pham, Spencer and a doctor in Germany -- remain in treatment.