A 5-year-old boy was taken to Bellevue Hospital in New York City Sunday to be tested for Ebola, after he registered a fever and was vomiting.
The boy, according to the New York Post, had recently been in West Africa.
An unnamed neighbor told the Post that the child with a 103-degree fever, who "looked weak," was carried from the Bronx home by emergency workers wearing protective gear.
“He was really, really out of it," the neighbor told the Post.
Bellevue Hospital nurse Belkys Fortune, left, and Teressa Celia, Associate Director of Infection Prevention and Control, wear protective suits in an isolation room in the Emergency section of the hospital during a demonstration of procedures for possible Ebola patients in New York. New York health officials are known for holdings drills on handling emergencies, and Ebola is no exception. (AP/Richard Drew)
At this point, the other members of the boy's family who had also been in Guinea — one of the countries impacted by the Ebola outbreak in Africa that has infected more than 10,000 people — are in quarantine in their apartment, according to the Post.
Bellevue Hospital is where Dr. Craig Spencer, a medical worker who served in West Africa with Doctors Without Borders, was taken last week and confirmed to have Ebola. Spencer is being treated for the deadly disease in isolation and recently received a blood transfusion from survivor Nancy Writebol.
NYC Health and Hospitals Corporation President Dr. Ram Raju spoke with Spencer Sunday and said in a statement that "the patient looks better than he looked yesterday, but he remains in serious but stable condition with the expected symptoms of the virus."
Recent incidents sparked more sweeping quarantine measures in New York and New Jersey. The governors of the two states are at odds with scientists over Ebola as they back 21-day quarantines for medical workers returning from West Africa, while the nation's top infectious-disease expert warns that such restrictions are unnecessary and could discourage volunteers from aiding disease-ravaged countries.
A New York City Office of Emergency Management employee walks into 546 West 147th Street, the apartment building of Dr. Craig Spencer on October 25, 2014 in New York City. (Bryan Thomas/Getty Images)
The two governors late Sunday night emphasized separately that their policies permit home confinement for medical workers who have had contact with Ebola patients if the workers show no symptoms. They will receive twice-daily monitoring from health officials.
The emphasis on home confinement was at odds with the widely criticized treatment of a nurse returning from Sierrra Leone who was forcibly quarantined is a New Jersey hospital isolation unit even though she said had no symptoms and tested negative for Ebola.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said such quarantines in medical facilities would only be used in some cases, such as if the health care workers were from states other than New York or New Jersey. For workers under home confinement, family members will be allowed to stay, and friends may visit with the approval of health officials. Workers displaying any symptoms will go straight to the hospital.
"We're staying one step ahead," Cuomo said Sunday night. "We're doing everything possible. Some people say we're being too cautious. I'll take that criticism."
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The Associated Press contributed to this report.
