Report: New York City physician tests positive for Ebola

UPDATES:  Officials Tracing New York Ebola Patient’s Movements, While Reassuring a Wary City-- Two stories

The Gutter, the bowling alley in Brooklyn that Dr. Spencer visited with friends on Wednesday night. According to Dr. Mary T. Bassett, New York City's health commissioner, Dr. Spencer was not symptomatic at the time. Credit Robert Stolarik for The New York Times

NEW YORK TIMES                                                                                     Oct. 24, 2014               

By MARC SANTORA

As disease investigators sought to ensure on Friday that they had found and isolated everyone who came into contact with New York City’s first Ebola patient when he was sick and infectious, doctors treating the man were discussing using experimental treatments to help him battle the virus.

Health officials said that initial reports were incorrect when they indicated that Dr. Craig Spencer, 33, had a 103-degree fever when he notified authorities of his ill health on Thursday. He actually only had a 100.3 fever. Officials attributed the mistake to a transcription error.

Dr. Spencer had been working with Doctors Without Borders in Guinea, treating Ebola patients, before returning to New York City on Oct. 14, according to a city official.

The patient was in stable condition on Friday, according to officials. The moment he was given a diagnosis, a discussion began about how best to treat him. Nearly all the patients treated in the United States have received some form of experimental treatment and doctors were discussing what, if any, of those they will use.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/25/nyregion/new-york-ebola-case-craig-spencer.html?&hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&version=LedeSumLargeMedia&module=a-lede-package-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0

NEW YORK TIMES                                                                              Oct. 24, 2014

By ANEMONA HARTOCOLLI

New York City’s first confirmed case of Ebola has raised complicated logistical issues of how to trace the possible contacts of an infected patient in a city of more than 8 million people with a sprawling mass transit system and a large population of workers who commute every day from surrounding suburbs and states.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/24/nyregion/tracing-patients-possible-contacts-creates-host-of-challenges-for-the-city.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&version=HpSum&module=b-lede-package-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

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EARLIER BREAKING STORY

WASHINGTON POST                              Oct. 23, 2014

By Abby Phillip, Elahe Izadi and Lena H. Sun

A New York physician who recently returned from the front lines of the Ebola epidemic in West Africa has tested positive for the deadly virus, according to the New York Times.

The man, identified as Craig Spencer by New York City Councilman Mark Levine, is in isolation at Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan. Spencer, who had been treating Ebola patients in Guinea with Doctors Without Borders, returned to New York this month.

Photo of Dr. Spencer posted on his Face Book

He becomes just the fourth person diagnosed with Ebola in the United States -- and the first on the East Coast.

The New York City health department, which did not identify Spencer, said in an earlier statement that he had returned to the United States "within the past 21 days from one of the three countries currently facing the outbreak of this virus." On Thursday, the statement said, Spencer "presented a fever and gastrointestinal symptoms" and was transported from a residence in Harlem to the hospital in Manhattan.

A federal official said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is readying a team of specialists for epidemiology, infection control and communications to travel to New York on Thursday night. CDC officials declined to comment.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2014/10/23/n-y-health-worker-who-recently-returned-from-west-africa-being-evaluated-for-ebola/