New York (AFP) – New York is “fully prepared†to handle Ebola, the city’s mayor said Friday, after a doctor who treated patients in epidemic-hit Guinea tested positive for the deadly virus.
“There is no cause for alarm,†Mayor Bill de Blasio told a news conference. “New Yorkers need to understand the situation is being handled and handled well.â€
He spoke one day after the 33-year-old doctor, who returned last week from Guinea, tested positive for the disease, which has already killed .
The patient, Craig Spencer, is now being held in isolation at Bellevue Hospital Center.
“We are fully prepared to handle Ebola. Our medical experts here in the city have been studying this disease intensively and working closely with our federal partners,†de Blasio said.
He said New York doctors were in contact with counterparts in Nebraska and Atlanta who had treated other Ebola patients, and stressed that protocols had been followed to the letter since Spencer was admitted on Thursday.
“New Yorkers who have not been exposed to an infected person are simply not at risk,†said the mayor.
But de Blasio urged anyone who has travelled to one of the three Ebola-afflicted countries in West Africa — Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone — in the last 21 days and has a fever to call 911 or go immediately to a hospital emergency room.
“We have no other cases reported but it’s important that people understand that is the protocol,†he said.
Speaking to the wider community, he also urged all New Yorkers to go now and get a flu shot, in order to ease pressure on medical teams.
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