A doctor who treated Ebola patients in West Africa and recently returned to the United States was rushed to a New York City hospital Thursday with possible symptoms of the viral disease.
According to the New York Post, 33-year-old Craig Spencer was taken in an ambulance to Bellevue Hospital with a fever and nausea.
Members of Bellevue Hospital staff wear protective clothing as they demonstrate how they would receive a suspected Ebola patient on October 8, 2014 in New York City. If the patient was confirmed to be carrying the deadly virus the person would be sent to an isolation unit for treatment. The first person diagnosed with Ebola in the United States, Liberian Thomas Duncan, has died at a Dallas hospital, Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital said. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
The physician who was working with Doctors Without Borders in Guinea has been back in the U.S. for 10 days.
The city's health department confirmed in a statement that a patient was transferred to the hospital by an EMS HAZ TAC unit. All people who transported the man were wearing personal protective equipment.
The health department said an Ebola test is being conducted and results should be available within 12 hours. The patient is being tested for other illnesses as well because his symptoms "can also be consistent with salmonella, malaria or the stomach flu."
Watch this footage of the ambulance on the way to the hospital with police escorts:
Watch WLNY-TV's report about the situation:
The hospital where the man was transported has a special isolation unit and is designated to treat any potential Ebola patients in the city, the health department noted.
"As a further precaution, beginning today, the health department’s team of disease detectives immediately began to actively trace all of the patient’s contacts to identify anyone who may be at potential risk," the health department said.
The New York Daily News reported that health officials are also investigating claims that Spencer went bowling in Williamsburg, a neighborhood in Brooklyn, Wednesday.
"The chances of the average New Yorker contracting Ebola are extremely slim," the statement continued. "Ebola is spread by directly touching the bodily fluids of an infected person. You cannot be infected simply by being near someone who has Ebola."
Robert Cedano, who works in the Harlem building where Spencer lives, told the Post that no one can come into the building unless they are police or health department staff.
Doctors Without Borders said in a statement, according to WCBS-TV, that its staff is given specific guidelines to monitor their health and report any symptoms immediately if they develop after they've returned home.
