(Bloomberg) -- Craig Spencer, the New York City doctor who contracted Ebola while caring for patients in Guinea, is improving and remains in stable condition, health authorities said.
Two of the three people Spencer had close contact with about the time he fell ill last month have been released from quarantine, while one remains confined, city officials said yesterday in a statement.
One of those who had been under quarantine was released yesterday and “poses no public health threat and is showing no symptoms,” health officials said in the statement. “This person’s daily movements in New York City will no longer be restricted, and the individual will be assessed twice each day by Health Department staff.”
As part of a nationwide effort to stop or quickly identify new infections, the city said it is monitoring 357 individuals. Most are people who recently arrived in New York from Ebola- affected countries. The group includes emergency medical workers who transported Spencer to Bellevue Hospital Center.
New York is one of five points of entry the U.S. has designated for travelers from nations with Ebolaoutbreaks. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said that anyone coming from those areas will be monitored for three weeks to check if they develop symptoms.
Under Watch
The number of people under watch in New York will fluctuate as health officials learn more about possible exposures to the virus, new travelers arrive or depart, or as their monitoring period ends, city officials said.
New York, New Jersey and Illinois have said they will implement mandatory quarantines for anyone who arrives from Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, where the outbreak is concentrated, and is at high risk of being infected. Pennsylvania, Maryland, Georgia and Virginia actively monitor people returning from the region.
The CDC recommended tighter screening procedures after a Dallas hospital failed to identify an infected Liberian man when he arrived at the emergency room in September. The man, Thomas Eric Duncan, was sent away from the hospital, only to return days later in an ambulance. He died on Oct. 8, and two nurses who cared for him were infected.
The Ebola outbreak has infected about 13,000 people and killed almost 5,000. There is no approved cure for the disease. Current standard care involves supporting the patient and using antibiotics to fight secondary infections.
Spencer, 33, worked as a volunteer for Doctors Without Borders, an aid group that has sent medical professionals to fight the outbreak at its source. He fell ill on Oct. 23, six days after returning to New York, and was rushed from his apartment in northern Manhattan to Bellevue and put in a special isolation unit.
His treatment has included an experimental drug made by Chimerix Inc., brincidofovir, as well as a blood transfusion from another Ebola survivor, which can boost virus-fighting antibodies in a patient.
--With assistance from Robert Langreth in New York.
Copyright 2018 Bloomberg. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Want to continue reading?
Become a Free PropertyCasualty360 Digital Reader
Your access to unlimited PropertyCasualty360 content isn’t changing.
Once you are an ALM digital member, you’ll receive:
- Breaking insurance news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
- Weekly Insurance Speak podcast featuring exclusive interviews with industry leaders
- Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
- Critical converage of the employee benefits and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, BenefitsPRO and ThinkAdvisor
Already have an account? Sign In Now
© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
