Doctor with Ebola being treated in N.Y.; nurse declared virus-free

The U.S. healthcare system got a new Ebola patient last week when a doctor in New York City tested positive, while another, Texas nurse Nina Pham, was declared free of the Ebola virus.

The New York patient, Dr. Craig Spencer, 33, worked with Doctors Without Borders in West Africa, treating Ebola patients there before returning to New York. Spencer, an emergency room doctor, had worked in Guinea and now is being cared for in an isolation ward at New York's Bellevue Hospital Center.

The city has designated Bellevue an Ebola treatment center. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday confirmed that Spencer has Ebola. It has sent an Ebola response team to New York.

During a news conference last week, officials said Spencer showed no symptoms in Guinea nor on his journey back to the U.S. He finished work in Guinea on Oct. 12, left the country Oct. 14 and returned to the U.S. via a stop in Europe, landing Oct. 17 at John F. Kennedy International Airport, officials said.

New York City's mayor, the governor of New York and officials from the state and city health departments took part in the news conference, all reassuring the public that the city was ready for such a case.

“We've been preparing for months for the threat posed by Ebola, with clear and strong protocols which are being scrupulously followed and were followed in this instance,” Gov. Andrew Cuomo said.

Spencer self-monitored his temperature twice a day upon returning, officials said. He did experience fatigue starting Oct. 21, but fatigue is not necessarily a symptom of Ebola. State and city health officials said his fever Thursday morning likely represented the first sign of the virus.

Last Friday, Pham was discharged from the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center in Bethesda, Md. Now free of the Ebola virus, she appeared with NIH officials at a Friday morning briefing.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, in discussing Pham's treatment, confirmed that she received no experimental drugs and that ultimately her own body fought off the virus. Pham added she is still in recovery mode, building up her strength.

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