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NYC Urged to Stay Calm after Latest Ebola Diagnosis

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Public health officials in New York City are urging calm in the wake of news that a doctor there is battling Ebola.

Dr. Craig Spencer recently returned from West Africa where he treated infected patients as a member of Doctor Without Borders.

On Thursday, he was rushed to a designated Ebola center in Manhattan after reporting a fever and diarrhea.

"We've been preparing for this for months....protocols which were scrupulously followed," NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio said.

Should the doctor from New York City put himself in quarantine after coming in contact with Ebola patients? CBN News International Reporter George Thomas, who recently reported on the Ebola outreak in Liberia, answers this and gives an insider's look on his own quarantine experience, Oct. 24.

A team of disease detectives are now tracing Spencer's movements since he returned from Africa one week ago. Before his diagnosis he rode the subway, went bowling and stopped in a restaurant.

Health officials have sealed off Spencer's apartment and quarantined his fiancée and two friends.

But they emphasized that the doctor was not contagious until he became sick.

"I think that the thing to make clear is that the first time this patient had fever was today and fever is the typical symptom of contagious Ebola," NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene Commissioner Dr. Mary Travis Bassett said.

Meanwhile, new numbers from the World Health Organization indicate the current international Ebola outbreak is the worst ever.

At least 4,800 people have already died from the virus--and at least 9,900 cases have been recorded. But WHO says the true numbers may be three times higher.

Ebola has hit Liberia the hardest, with 4,600 reported cases and 2,700 deaths.

And now there's news that more than half the treatment beds in the capital are empty. It's an unintended consequence of the government order to cremate all the bodies of Ebola victims.

The order runs so contrary to Liberian customs that a growing number of people are keeping their sick loved ones at home, increasing the risk of infection.

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About The Author

Heather
Sells

Heather Sells covers wide-ranging stories for CBN News that include religious liberty, ministry trends, immigration, and education. She’s known for telling personal stories that capture the issues of the day, from the border sheriff who rescues migrants in the desert to the parents struggling with a child that identifies as transgender. In the last year, she has reported on immigration at the Texas border, from Washington, D.C., in advance of the Dobbs abortion case, at crisis pregnancy centers in Massachusetts, and on sexual abuse reform at the annual Southern Baptist meeting in Anaheim