NEW YORK
A doctor who recently worked in one of the Ebola affected countries in West Africa has become New York City’s first diagnosed case, officials confirmed early Friday.
Craig Spencer recently returned from Guinea where he worked with the medical humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders, one of the three countries hardest hit by the current outbreak of the virus.
He is being treated at Bellevue Hospital, designated for the isolation and treatment of potential Ebola patients by the city and state.
Spencer used the city’s subway system Wednesday night to travel from Manhattan to Brooklyn, according to the New York Times, and a team from the city’s health department began to trace all of his contacts to identify anyone who may be at potential risk, the department said.
In a bid to quell the concerns growing among New Yorkers about the spread of the virus, Gov. Andrew Cuomo told the CNN network that he would ride one of the three subway routes which Spencer had taken. He is expected to ride either of the city's A, L or 1 trains Friday.
"We want to state at the outset – there is no reason for New Yorkers to be alarmed. Ebola is an extremely hard disease to contract," Cuomo told a joint press conference Thursday night with New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio.
The virus, for which there is no known cure, is transmitted by direct contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person. It is not spread through the air.
Symptoms include a fever of 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius) or higher, headache, nausea and diarrhea or abdominal pain.
New York City’s case marks the fourth time a patient has been diagnosed with Ebola in the U.S. In late September, Liberian citizen Thomas Eric Duncan became the first person to test positive for the virus in the U.S. Two nurses who attended to him were infected with the disease.
Ebola has killed as many as 4,877 people and infected more than 9,900, according to the latest figures from the World Health Organization. Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone are the countries hardest hit by the 2014 outbreak of the virus.
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