A Kennedy Airport
passenger who arrived Tuesday from Sierra Leone with Ebola-like symptoms was
taken late at night to a Manhattan hospital, authorities said.
The passenger had fever
and upper respiratory problems and was being evaluated as a precaution at Bellevue
Hospital Center to determine whether tests for the deadly disease should be
administered, said Ian Michaels, spokesman for the New York City Health and
Hospitals Corp., which operates Bellevue.
Sierra Leone is one of
the West African countries at the epicenter of the Ebola epidemic, and New York
City health officials have interviewed the patient, authorities said.
"The patient had no
known Ebola exposure," said the corporation's statement.
Michaels declined to give the gender or other patient details. As of 2 a.m. Wednesday, doctors were continuing to evaluate the patient and had not decided whether the Ebola test should be given, the spokesman said. Other details were not immediately available.
In the early stages of
the disease, the result may be negative, said Michaels, and in that case, the
federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will administer a second
test.
Bellevue successfully
treated Ebola-stricken Dr. Craig Spencer for nearly three weeks after he was
diagnosed Oct. 23, days after returning from treating Ebola patients
in Guinea with Doctors Without Borders.
Ebola has killed
thousands in West Africa and stricken many more since it broke out in the
region last year. It can cause unexplained bleeding, abdominal pain, diarrhea
and vomiting.
Details on what flight
the passenger had been on, and the time it arrived, were not immediately
available Tuesday night. A Port Authority spokesman could not be reached
Tuesday night.
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