A New York doctor who had been treating Ebola patients in West Africa has tested positive for the deadly virus, New York health officials said Thursday night.
Craig Spencer, a 33-year-old doctor and member of Doctors without Borders who had been working in Guinea, returned to New York six days ago. On Thursday, he reported a 103-degree fever and diarrhea. He is being treated in isolation at Bellevue Hospital in New York City, one of eight state hospitals that Gov. Andrew Cuomo has designated to treat Ebola patients.
He is the fourth person in the U.S. to have contracted the virus. Thomas Eric Duncan, a Liberian national who flew to Dallas, was the first to be diagnosed with Ebola in the U.S. He died in a Dallas hospital several days later. Two nurses who treated him were infected and are hospitalized at two specialized facilities.
Four other Americans, including three doctors, were infected while working in West Africa and were transported to the U.S. for treatment in recent months. All recovered.
Ebola has killed almost 5,000 people in the West African nations of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. It is spread through direct contact with bodily fluids of a sick person or exposure to objects such as needles that have been contaminated, according to the Centers for Disease and Prevention.
