EBOLA virus: New York doctor tests positive; was in Guinea until last week; concerns mount

EBOLA virus: New York doctor tests positive; was in Guinea until last week; concerns mount.

Special to USAfricaonline.com, CLASSmagazine,  and USAfrica multimedia networks, Houston. Follow USAfrica at Facebook.com/USAfricaChido , Facebook.com/USAfrica247 and Twitter.com/Chido247

By Chido Nwangwu, USAfricaonline.com: Craig Spencer, a medical doctor/physician in his 30s who works with Doctors Without Borders, and returned only a week ago from treating Ebola patients in the west African country of Guinea, where he is believed to have been treating Ebola patients has tested positive for the Ebola virus on Thursday, October 23, 2014. Therefore, becoming New York city’s first diagnosed case and heightening concerns in the area.

“Today, EMS HAZ TAC Units transferred to Bellevue Hospital a patient who presented a fever and gastrointestinal symptoms,” New York City officials said in a statement. “The patient is a health care worker who returned to the U.S. within the past 21 days from one of the three countries currently facing the outbreak of this virus.”
Doctors Without Borders said in a statement that “A person in New York City, who recently worked with Doctors Without Borders in one of the Ebola-affected countries in West Africa, notified our office this morning to report having developed a fever…. As per the specific guidelines that Doctors Without Borders provides its staff on their return from Ebola assignments, the individual engaged in regular health monitoring and reported this development immediately.  While at this stage there is no confirmation that the individual has contracted Ebola, Doctors Without Borders, in the interest of public safety and in accordance with its protocols, immediately notified the New York City Department of Health & Mental Hygiene, which is directly managing the individual’s care.”

Local area officials are calling for calm: “I want to assure everyone in Northern Manhattan that City, State and Federal public health authorities are responding with the highest possible level of urgency and marshaling every resource at their disposal to respond to this possible case. I want to reiterate that this has not yet been confirmed as an Ebola case but every precaution is being taken as if it were,” said City Council Member Mark Levine (D-7th), who represents Spencer’s district.

The first patient diagnosed in the U.S with the Ebola virus died in Dallas, Texas, on September 30, 2014. Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas announced that the Liberian, Thomas Eric Duncan, who was admitted to the

 hospital on September 28 was pronounced dead at 7:51 a.m, today (US CSTime). On September 19, Mr. Duncan boarded a flight to the U.S departing from Liberia after being screened for Ebola symptoms.

USAfricaonline.com notes that Duncan has been the point of controversy as the Liberian government denounced his failure to fully and properly disclose his health condition.  His family members remain under “quarantine.” According to the doctors, the family members have not showed the symptoms of the ebola virus and will remain under monitoring and isolation until October 19.

In Texas, Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins was  more  sympathetic, noting that “My thoughts are with the family and friends of Thomas Eric Duncan at this time, especially his fiancée Louise, their son Karsiah and all those who loved him,”  in a written statement. “We are also thinking of the dedicated hospital staff who assisted Mr. Duncan daily while he fought this terrible disease. We offer prayers of comfort and peace to everyone impacted by his passing.”

The worst impact of the Ebola virus has been across West Africa where USAfricaonline.com index of official and unofficial number dead has almost reached 2,000. Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea are suffering the brunt and viral fire of Ebola. By Chido Nwangwu

We should not let Ebola nurse-victim Justina Ejelonu, others die. By John Okiyi Kalu. 

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#Achebe USAfrica Founder Dr. Chido Nwangwu gets award for his works on#ThingsFallApart author Chinua Achebe from ASA-USA Dallas. Chido is completing the book on Mandela & Achebe: Footprints of Greatness. by Chido Nwangwu ISBN 978-0-9893970-0-1. www.MandelaAchebeChido.com

VIDEO of the CNN International broadcast/profile of USAfrica and CLASSmagazine Publisher Chido Nwangwu.   http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/video/international/2010/07/29/mpa.african.media.bk.a.cnn  

 and friendship hold lessons for humanity and Africans, USAfrica Founder Chido Nwangwu takes a measure of their works and consequence to write that Mandela and Achebe have left “footprints of greatness.”

He chronicles, movingly, his 1998 reporting from the Robben Island jail room in South Africa where Mandela was held for decades through his 20 years of being close to Achebe. He moderated the 2012 Achebe Colloquium at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.“I’ll forever remember having walked inside and peeped through that historic Mandela jail cell (where he was held for most of his 27 years in unjust imprisonment) at the dreaded Robben Island, on March 27, 1998, alongside then Editor-in-chief of TIME magazine and later news chief executive of the CNN, Walter Isaacson (and others) when President Bill Clinton made his first official trip to South Africa and came to Robben Island. Come to this island of scourge and you will understand, in part, the simple greatness and towering grace of Nelson Mandela”, notes  Chido Nwangwu, award-winning writer, multimedia 

specialist and founder of USAfricaonline.com, the first African-owned U.S-based newspaper published on the internet, in his first book; he writes movingly from his 1998 reporting from South Africa on Mandela. http://www.mandelaachebechido.com/

IF any of the Nigerian President’s 100 advisers has the polite courage for the extraordinary task of reminding His Excellency of his foremost, sworn, constitutional obligation to the national interest about security and safety of Nigerians and all who sojourn in Nigeria, please whisper clearly to Mr. President that I said, respectfully: Nigerians, at home and abroad, are still concerned and afraid for living in what I call Nigeria’s Federal Republic of Insecurity. FULL text of commentary, exclusively, at USAfricaonline.com https://usafricaonline.com/2011/12/17/nigeria-federal-republic-of-insecurity-by-chido-nwangwu/

USAfrica: BOKO HARAM’s latest killings sharpen divide for security team at Nigeria’s presidency. By Chido Nwangwu
https://usafricaonline.com/2013/10/21/usafrica-boko-harams-latest-killings-sharpen-divide-for-security-team-at-nigerias-presidency-by-chido-nwangwu/

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Dancing with “ghosts” of BOKO HARAM, President Jonathan, Sultan Abubakar and Nigeria’s national security. By Dr. Chido Nwangwu
https://usafricaonline.com/2013/04/05/dancing-with-ghosts-of-boko-haram-president-jonathan-sultan-abubakar-and-nigerias-national-security-by-chido-nwangwu/