The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed Thursday that a medical aid worker who was hospitalized in New York City less than a week after returning from the West African nation of Guinea has tested positive for Ebola, marking the first case of the disease in the United States’ most populous city.
According to the CDC, the patient returned from Guinea on Oct. 17 and went through rigorous entry screening at JFK International Airport, at which time the patient did not exhibit any symptoms or signs of infection. On Thursday, the patient reported having a fever and was transported via a specially trained Hazardous Material Tactical (HAZ TAC) Unit to New York’s Bellevue Hospital, one of eight hospitals in the city designated to treat potential Ebola cases, where the patient currently remains in isolation.
The “CDC is in close communications with the New York City Health Department and Bellevue Hospital, and is providing technical assistance and resources,” the agency said in a statement, adding that a three-member CDC Ebola Response Team arrived in New York on Thursday as doctors conduct further testing and await lab results. This team will supplement an existing team of Ebola experts that CDC already had in place in New York and will work with Bellevue and other local hospitals to ensure that their Ebola protocols meet CDC standards.
The news of New York City’s first Ebola case comes shortly after the state of New York was designated as one of six that will launch CDC’s active monitoring program, which will require everyone coming to the United States from the Ebola-stricken nations of Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone to remain in close daily contact with local health officials to ensure that they do not have or spread the disease. The other five states are Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, New Jersey, and Georgia; together, these states account for 70% of incoming traffic from the afflicted West African nations.
The CDC and the New York City Health Department have interviewed the patient to gather information on any “close contacts and activities” since returning to the United States last week, according to the statement. To contract the disease, a person must come into contact with the bodily fluids of an infected individual who is symptomatic. People who come into contact with an Ebola patient but show no symptoms for 21 days are no longer at risk.