A healthcare worker was admitted on Thursday to Bellevue Hospital in New York City to be tested for the Ebola virus, according to the New York City Department of Health.
In a statement on its website, the department said the patient had recently traveled in one of the three West African countries facing an outbreak of the virus (Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.)
The individual was transferred to Bellevue by a specially trained team equipped with hazmat suits. Tests were expected to be back within 12 hours, according to the statement.
The patient exhibited “fever and gastrointestinal symptoms,” according to the health department. Taken together with the recent travel history, the city decided to test the healthcare worker for Ebola after consulting with Bellevue and the Center For Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Doctors were “also evaluating the patient for other causes of illness, as these symptoms can also be consistent with salmonella, malaria, or the stomach flu,” the statement read.
The health department also began to track down the patient’s contacts “to identify anyone who may be at potential risk.”
This post has been updated.
EBOLA! [this message is paid for by GOPAC]
With a capital E and that rhymes with B and that stands for EBOLA!!!1!!!
So…has the US Ebola kill count hit 3 yet?
By omitting any information whatsoever as to where and how this was discovered, you only contribute to the ridiculous hysteria. Did this person recently come from West Africa and not spend 22 days in quarantine? If so, why not? When did they discover the systems? How long have they been here? What have they been doing in the interim? This story makes it sound like this person came over from West Africa, traipsed about NYC vomiting in the water supply while treating patients in a major hospital that sees hundreds or thousands of patients a day and then finally someone noticed and decided they should be tested. It’s ridiculous.
And I’m dead serious: if this person came from West Africa and did not spend 22 days in quarantine, then someone’s fucking head should roll. Taking this virus seriously does not mean you are panicking, and proving you’re not panicking does not require you to be flagrantly negligent.
Look, pal. They’re “journalists”. Control-C, Control-V doesn’t happen all on its own you know.