By Jamie Schram, Frank Rosario and Shawn Cohen
October 23, 2014
“I want to reiterate that this has not yet been confirmed as an Ebola case but every precaution is being taken as if it were.”
A team of disease detectives are now trying to identify others who may have come in contact with the doctor and could be at risk.
The NYPD’s missing persons squad is also looking at his subway card, credit card and bank statements to follow his trail, law enforcement sources said.
“The Health Department staff has established protocols to identify, notify, and, if necessary, quarantine any contacts of Ebola cases,” they said.
Spencer notified Doctors Without Borders about his fever Thursday morning, the organization said in a statement.
“As per the specific guidelines that Doctors Without Borders provides its staff on their return from Ebola assignments, the individual engaged in regular health monitoring and reported this development immediately,” the statement says.
Robert Cedano, who works in Spencer’s Harlem building, said he’s worried about catching the deadly disease.
“It’s worrisome,” he told The Post. “But he’s been away for a long time. I don’t know when he got back. But he’s gone now so I’m relieved. We just can’t let anyone in the building right now except for the police and the health department.”
Residents at the building were handed fliers with bullet points on Ebola, including symptoms and how the virus is transmitted.
Friend and neighbor, John Roston, 38, said Spencer lives with his girlfriend, Morgan Dixon, and is a “really nice person.”
A law enforcement source said the two were together after he arrived home from Guinea.
“I believe she is a fiancee,” the source said.
Spencer posted a photo of himself in protective gear on Sept. 18 from Brussels, Belgium, where many West Africa-bound passengers catch connecting flights.
“Off to Guinea with Doctors Without Borders (MSF),” he wrote. “Please support organizations that are sending support or personnel to West Africa, and help combat one of the worst public health and humanitarian disasters in recent history.”
On Oct. 16, he checked in again from a hotel in the Belgian capital.
“Glad to see that you made it out! Will see you when you are back in NY,” wrote Sanjay Gupta.
http://nypost.com/2014/10/23/nyc-may-have-its-first-ebola-case/
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Note: A trained medical professional comes back from an Ebola infected country, having had mucho experience w/ the virus, and then goes bowling in one of the most densely populated cities in the country? Anyone believe that…? I don’t know if they’re using him on a trial run or deliberately trying to create “choas” but I don’t think he has the virus since he’d know better! Not saying there aren’t any in the country, in fact, there’s internet rumors that there are tens coming over the border with s/s of ebola who are being disappeared. Anyway, at least this time there’s no clipboard guy …
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UPDATE: Ebola strikes NYC: Doctor tests positive for deadly virus
New York has its first case of Ebola.
A Harlem doctor who recently treated patients in Africa, tested positive for the deadly disease after he was rushed to Bellevue Hospital with symptoms, including a 103-degree fever, sources told The Post.
Craig Spencer, a 33-year-old Doctors Without Borders volunteer, began showing symptoms one night after he was out bowling in Brooklyn, police sources said.
Spencer and his live-in girlfriend, Morgan Dixon, 30, were both quarantined at Bellevue at noon Thursday as cops retraced their steps since the doctor returned from Guinea on Oct. 17, the sources said.
Spencer had spent Wednesday night bowling in Williamsburg. He used an Uber car service to get to and from the Brooklyn neighborhood.
Hipster bowling hot spot The Gutter was closed last night due to “unforseen circumstances.”
Spencer had spent a month treating Ebola patients in Guinea, according to his Facebook page.
He landed at Kennedy Airport on Oct. 17 on a connecting flight from Brussels, Belgium, the sources said. With enhanced screening in place, officials checked his temperature upon arrival, and it was a healthy 98.6 degrees, the sources said.
But on Thursday morning, he awoke with nausea, the alarming 103-degree temperature and stomach pains. Spencer self-quarantined at his West 147th Street apartment and immediately alerted Doctors Without Borders, which notified the city Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and Mental Hygiene.
“After consulting with the hospital and the CDC, DOHMH has decided to conduct a test for the Ebola virus because of this patient’s recent travel history, pattern of symptoms and past work,” the agency said in a statement.
An army of emergency vehicles swarmed Spencer’s block around noon and completely shut the street down.
A witness saw a person huddled in a wheelchair and swaddled in blankets being lifted onto a stretcher and into an ambulance.
FDNY specialists in hazmat suits sealed off his fifth-floor apartment, sources said. Spencer was taken to Bellevue, which has been outfitted to treat any Ebola cases that arise in New York.
As doctors waited for his test results, a team of disease detectives searched for everyone who had been in contact with Spencer. That includes Dixon, who was picked up at her Downtown Brooklyn office on Thursday afternoon. So far, she has not shown any symptoms.
Neighbors have seen the couple around town since he arrived home. Dixon even dropped off the couple’s clothes at a local dry cleaner on Wednesday.
Police are seen outside Spencer’s apartment on West 146th Street.Photo: Chad Rachman
“I washed his clothes. I’ll be OK, right? It’ll be OK,” worker John Byun, 60, asked The Post.
The NYPD’s missing-persons squad is looking at Spencer’s MetroCard, credit cards and bank statements to follow his trail since he arrived back in the city, law-enforcement sources said.
Robert Cedano, who works in Spencer’s Harlem building, said he’s concerned about catching the deadly disease.
“It’s worrisome,” he said. “I don’t know when he got back. But he’s gone now, so I’m relieved.”
Residents at the building were handed fliers with bullet points on Ebola, including symptoms and how the virus is transmitted.
Neighbor Morgan Pistrana, 16, who lives next door to Spencer said he’s a friendly guy who’s dedicated to his work, which often takes him overseas.
“I’m pretty sure he’s going to be fine,” she said.
But a law-enforcement source wasn’t so confident.
“He told the authorities, ‘Yeah, I was in West Africa, I was treating Ebola patients and now have a 103 fever and stomach pains, nausea, which are the classic symptoms of Ebola,” he said. “You do the math.”
Additional reporting by Rebecca Harshbarger and Yoav Gonen
Update: http://nypost.com/2014/10/23/nyc-doctor-tests-positive-for-deadly-ebola-virus/
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NYT’s: “It appears he tested positive, took the subway and then a cab home: “Even as the authorities worked to confirm that Mr. Spencer was infected with Ebola, it emerged that he traveled from Manhattan to Brooklyn on the subway on Wednesday night, when he went to a bowling alley and then took a taxi home.” http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/24/nyregion/craig-spencer-is-tested-for-ebola-virus-at-bellevue-hospital-in-new-york-city.html
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Note: He had been home about 8 days when he first started having symptoms. Tuesday he began feeling sluggish. Wednesday he took the subway, bowled, then took a taxi home. Thursday he woke up with 103 temp which is day 10 – today – when he self-quarantined after calling doctors without borders. The media has said he returned 10 days ago so the timeline is right. I’m finding it difficult to accept that this experienced doctor, who worked for doctors without borders w/ ebola patients in Guinea, didn’t self-quarantine himself for the 21 days but rather exposed many people to it. I continue to suspect this was a planned drill meant to scare us. News today – Nurse Nina Pham is “free of ebola” and will be released soon. I have no doubt that this doctor will have the same outcome. Is it a sales pitch for bigpharma or something else? Obama, by executive order, added to Bush’ “patriot act” the right to imprison people with infectious respiratory problems. Considering the way he’s gone about containing the virus, the glaring missteps which continues, one can forecast w/o a doubt it will spread…deliberately? What’s the motivation? Forced manatory medical quarantines/ prison camps? FEMA has already set them up (along with coffins) almost as if forecasting the need for them. And then were does their latest creation isis fit into the picture…one might note that many in the SWAT teams have been wearing black face masks.
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UPDATE 10/29/2014 – this doctor lied – apparently he had a low grade fever the day he decided to paint the town red aka bowling, restaurant, subway, cabs… something doesn’t smell right for sure…is this doctor being blackmailed or what…and if so, motivation?
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Reminder: “The National Institutes of Health (NIH) mated live ebola with the virus for the common cold.” -Dr. Francis Boyle, Bio-Weapons Expert
