Heightened concern about the Ebola virus has led to alarms being raised at three hospitals in New York City. But so far, no Ebola cases have turned up.
The latest episode involved a man who had recently been to West Africa, and who went to the emergency room at Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan late Sunday with a high fever and gastrointestinal problems, the hospital reported on Monday. He is being kept in isolation at the hospital while tests are being done for Ebola, a deadly disease, but also for other illnesses that could have caused his symptoms.
But the city’s health department issued a statement on Monday saying that after consulting with Mount Sinai and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, “the health department has concluded that the patient is unlikely to have Ebola. Specimens are being tested for common causes of illness and to definitively exclude Ebola. Testing results will be made available by C.D.C. as soon as they are available.”
At NYU Langone Medical Center last week, a patient who went to the emergency room with a fever and who mentioned a recent visit to West Africa was given a mask and moved to a secluded area, said Dr. Michael Phillips, the hospital’s director of Infection Prevention and Control. But further questioning revealed that the patient had not visited any of the affected countries, “so we stopped right there,” Dr. Phillips said.
At Bellevue Hospital Center last week, a patient was placed in isolation, but it quickly became clear that he did not have Ebola.
An Ebola outbreak centered mainly in three West African countries — Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia — has infected more than 1,300 people and killed more than 700 of them. American health officials have advised against nonessential travel to the three countries, and have urged doctors to be on high alert for people who return from the region with symptoms like fever, diarrhea and vomiting.
A Mount Sinai spokeswoman, Dorie Klissas, said that to protect the patient’s privacy, the hospital was not making public his occupation, which country he had been in, whether he had been exposed to a patient with Ebola there, or whether he had close contacts like family members, friends or co-workers who were also at risk. Officials said they expected the results of the tests for Ebola in 24 to 48 hours.
In a statement to employees, hospital officials said that Ebola was spread only by direct contact with bodily fluids, and that infection control measures were being employed to protect patients and staff members.
In the Bellevue Hospital Center case, Dr. Ross Wilson, the chief medical officer at the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation, said that the man had symptoms also found in Ebola patients. He had arrived at Kennedy International Airport from West Africa and was being detained by security personnel at the airport for an unrelated matter when he fell ill.
“He developed a headache and fever,” Dr. Wilson said. He was transported to Bellevue, but the people who brought him there did not suspect Ebola.
“We immediately put the dots together,” Dr. Wilson said.
Following the guidance of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, every patient entering one of the city’s hospitals who has fever, headache and other symptoms associated with Ebola (as well as countless other ailments), is asked two new questions.
“Have you traveled to or from West African countries in the last 10 days? Have you been in contact with an Ebola patient or with anyone who has been in contact with an Ebola patient?”
Source: Denise Grady and Marc Santora (2014-08-04) "Patients’ Symptoms Raise Concern About Ebola in New York" Link to original. Retrieved by Monica Green.
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