NYC Health Dept. Says Patient is Unlikely to Have Ebola

Photo: A wheelchair merchant on the streets of Monrovia, Liberia where the Ebola virus has caused hospitals and clinics to close/Eric (Hash) Hersman, Flickr Creative Commons

The man admitted to Mount Sinai Monday, with symptoms consistent with the Ebola virus is unlikely to have the disease the New York City Department of Health announced Monday night after consultation with the United States Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia and the hospital. The news was broken by Crain’s New York and NY1 late Monday night.

The New York City Health Department was quoted in Crain’s as saying that the CDC, Mount Sinai, and the NYC Health Department have concluded that the patient is unlikely to have Ebola. The statement said that tests are continuing for common causes of the man’s illness and to definitively exclude Ebola.

The patient who is being tested and treated at Mount Sinai had recently returned from travels in West Africa where the disease is rampant.

The Ebola virus can only be contracted through direct contact with bodily fluids not through the air. There is no cure for the virus and symptoms appear from between two and 21 days after a person has been exposed. Symptoms include fever, muscle and joint aches and pains, diarrhea, vomiting and abnormal bleeding.

The World Health Organization announced Monday that the death toll in Africa from the Ebola virus has risen to 887 deaths. The disease has been diagnosed in Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Nigeria.

The WHO and presidents of west African nations where the Ebola virus has been diagnosed met on Friday in Guinea to announce a $100 million response plan to bring the outbreak under control.

The New York Times reported Tuesday that hospitals and clinics in Monrovia, Liberia are deserted as doctors and nurses are afraid to come to work. The health workers do not believe they have the necessary precautions in place to protect themselves when caring for patients.

Crowds of people have taken to the streets in Liberia protesting the burial of victims in areas near where they live and work as the disease is known to be most easily transmitted from the bodies of the dead to those who care for them while dying and perform burials.