Ebola Outbreak 2014 News Update, Watchlist & Death Toll: NYC Doctor Craig Spencer Virus Free; SIM Charlotte Doctor in Quarantine
Craig Spencer, the doctor who contracted Ebola while on a Doctors Without Borders mission on West Africa, is now free of the virus, NBC News reported.
According to NBC News, Spencer got infected with the disease while caring for Ebola patients in Guinea, one of the hot zones of Ebola in West Africa. Spencer will be released from the Bellevue Hospital Center on Tuesday, New York City health officials stated.
"Dr. Spencer poses no public health risk and will be discharged from the hospital tomorrow, Tuesday, November 11th," NYC health department announced, as quoted by NBC News.
Spencer, 33, was the first confirmed person to be infected with the deadly virus in New York City, FOX News noted. Before he was admitted to the hospital, he reportedly went to a bowling alley from his Harlem apartment and used the subway transit system and a taxi.
NBC News added that health officials are still monitoring 357 people who Spencer have been in contact with, including travelers and a few medical staff who brought him to the hospital.
After arriving in NYC on October 17, Spencer complied with federal protocols by taking his temperature twice a day. According to NBC News, "He [Spencer] called Doctors Without Borders when he developed a temperature and Bellevue was able to send specially garbed ambulance workers to get him. The hospital had been preparing for Ebola patients and had a special unit set up to treat him."
For his treatment, Spencer received a plasma transfusion from Nancy Writebol, a fellow health care worker who also contracted and survived from the deadly disease, NBC News reported. Writebol was treated in August for Ebola and recovered in Emory Hospital in Georgia, FOX News added.
"The U.S. is now free of known Ebola cases. Only two people have been infected in the United States and the 21-day monitoring period is almost over for Spencer's contacts; it will end Thursday," NBC News further reports.
Charlotte-based SIM Doctor Still in Quarantine
Dr. John Fankhauser, 52, is still being heavily monitored by health officials even though he's not showing any symptoms of Ebola, WCNC reported. The SIM doctor was considered at some risk after caring for a female patient infected with the deadly virus in Liberia.
According to WCNC, Fankhauser wore the necessary protective gear while caring for the patient. From Liberia, the doctor traveled to Atlanta and then drove to the SIM headquarters in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Mecklenburg County issued a mandatory quarantine on Fankhauser in accordance to CDC's guidelines and abundance of caution. "It is a tool that is put into place for public health to continually reassure the citizens that we are fulfilling one of our missions which is protection of the health of the public," according to Mecklenburg County Health Director Dr. Stephen Keener, as cited by WCNC.
SIM health officials stated that Fankhauser wants to go back volunteering in Liberia after his quarantine ends in two weeks, WCNC noted.
This quarantine is Fankhauser's second time; the first one was back in August after he came back from Liberia caring for Writebol and Dr. Kent Brantly, who both recovered from the Ebola virus in the U.S.