EBOLA in NYC

Dr. Craig Spencer tested positive for Ebola at New York’s Bellevue Hospital, city officials confirmed late Thursday.

Spencer recently returned from West Africa where he was working with Doctors Without Borders to treat Ebola patients in Guinea. Spencer is now the city’s first confirmed case of the deadly virus.

Spencer was rushed to the hospital Thursday where he was placed in isolation. The city’s Health Department confirmed that Spencer had a 103-degree fever. City officials say Spencer was not feeling well for a couple of days prior to his hospital admission. “Bellevue Hospital is one of eight New York State hospitals that Governor Cuomo has designated to treat Ebola patients,” the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in a statement released late Thursday, adding, “A specially trained CDC team determined earlier this week that the hospital has been trained in proper protocols and is well prepared to treat Ebola patients.”

“Symptoms usually occur within eight to 10 days of infection and Dr. Spencer was home nine days when he reported feeling ill,” according to The New York Times. According to the CDC’s statement, Spencer returned through JFK Airport on Oct. 17 “and participated in the enhanced screening for all returning travelers from these countries.”

The CDC will conduct further testing on Spencer to confirm Thursday’s initial test. Meanwhile, health care workers are investigating those with whom Spencer may have come into contact since returning to the United States.

A federal official confirmed to NBC news that several members of the rapid-response team will arrive in New York City Thursday and others will follow Friday the morning.

Spencer, who is a emergency room physician at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center, did not return to work following his trip to West Africa, the hospital said in a statement.

Spencer traveled from Manhattan to Brooklyn via the subway Wednesday night, The New York Times reports, adding that he then went to a bowling alley and took a taxi home.

Spencer’s girlfriend was in quarantine but healthy, the Health Department told NBC News. The Ebola virus is spread through direct contact with the bodily fluids of a person who is symptomatic. The CDC recommends monitoring exposed people for symptoms a complete 21 days.

President Obama was briefed Thursday evening on Spencer’s case. Mayor Bill de Blasio and Gov. Andrew Cuomo held a joint news conference at the hospital Thursday evening.

In Ohio, 164 people remain under the Center for Disease Control’s Ebola watch and three are under quarantine; in Texas, more than 100 are being monitored for the virus.

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