New York doctor tests positive for Ebola

New York medical professional Craig Spencer, who treated Ebola patients in Guinea, has tested positive for the disease.

17:00 24 October 2014

Dr Craig Spencer, a New York doctor who recently returned from Guinea where he was treating Ebola patients, has tested positive for the disease.

Spencer, who worked for the charity Medecins Frontieres (MSF), came down with fever on Thursday, just days after his return to the United States. He is the fourth Ebola case in the US and first in New York.

Dr Spencer left Guinea on 14 October and returned to New York City on 17 October via Europe. By Thursday, he developed a fever and diarrhoea. He was immediately taken to Bellevue Hospital where he is being kept in isolation.

President Barack Obama said his thoughts and prayers were with the patient.

New York officials said that the doctor travelled on the subway and gone out jogging before he started feeling sick. On Thursday, officials eased fears of the outbreak saying that those who came into immediate contact with Dr Spencer were not at risk.

"There is no reason for New Yorkers to be alarmed," Mayor Bill de Blasio said. "Ebola is an extremely hard disease to contract. New Yorkers who have not been exposed to an infected person's bodily fluids are not at risk."
Governor Andrew Cuomo said, "We can't say that this is an unexpected circumstance."